Ratchet and Clank Future: Vorselon Returns
by Mike H
Summary: Ever wondered what happened to Lord Vorselon after A Crack in Time? Now's your chance to find out! BTW I do not own Ratchet and Clank. Rated T for blood, brief gore, breif alcohol reference, and a scene of torture. Please review and tell me how I did!
1. Rude Awakening

Rude Awakening

Ratchet awoke to his important, yet highly annoying digital holovid alarm clock. He checked his surroundings, and realized that he was in his room in bed. After stepping out of bed and putting on his slippers, he also remembered that he was at the Apogee Space Station in the Nundac Asteroid Ring. He had lived here ever since he defeated Dr. Nefarious the previous month.

He walked away from his bed in hopes that today could be eventful, as he did every day before. But his demands were never met. So, he usually took a hydro-shower, put on his holo-flux armor (just in case this day WAS eventful), woke up Clank, and wait for Talwyn to wake up as well. Cronk and Zephyr always got up really early to go fishing in their specialized fishing hole, so he wouldn't have to wait for them.

As he approached the shower, he ordered the station to turn on the water. The house did so, and Ratchet stepped inside. The shower bombarded him with multiple streams of water at his preferred heat setting. After the shower sensed that Ratchet's fur was all wet, it then used the same jets to pelt him with his "special" cleaning liquid (which was Captain Quark shampoo. This he swore not to tell anyone). Luckily, the soap did not penetrate his tightly shut eyelids today. After this, he was once again being drenched with water, but this time, it was for rinsing himself. After all the soap was removed, he instantly felt the harsh winds of the air blast system against his fur. This was always his favorite part of the shower's three minute duration. And, since he was having a good day so far, he softly allowed himself to purr. But he discontinued after a few seconds, mortified that someone might hear him.

But by now he was completely dry, and stepped out of his hydro-shower. And his Anti Dark Matter Bathroom Buddy spit out a ready towel. He wrapped this around himself and proceeded to his auto-dresser. He pressed a button that read: 'Holo-flux armor' and it instantly dressed him. First, putting on his underwear with the specialized, (but rather silly) little rocket ships on it. Ratchet groaned at the fact that this was all he had. Then it dressed him in the armor. Starting with the upper torso, then moving down to his lower body, which, attached to the pants, was his manifestor, which carried all his weapons, gadgets and ammo. Then, the dresser finally dressed him in his gloves and boots.

Once he was fully dressed, he went next door, knocked on Clank's bedroom door, and rather loudly shouted:

"Clank! Time to wake up, pal!"

No answer.

He tried again. "CLANK!! Wake up so Zephyr can make you breakfast!"

"I would not dare to touch Zephyr's cooking," a metallic voice responded from behind the door.

Ratchet had to admit, Zephyr's food was revolting. Last week, Talwyn tried some of his "waffles", and locked herself in the bathroom. She didn't come out until about 6:00 PM.

Ratchet left Clank to get up when he wished. He went to the kitchen (if you could call it that), went to the beverage dispenser, and touched a button on the screen that read: 'sludge'. (This was sort of like coffee from the Leonoid Galaxy.) Another screen popped up, and Ratchet selected 'extra strong' from the menu, and pressed 'dispense'. A cup fell from a tube attached to the small device, quickly followed by his helping of sludge. Ratchet took the cup, took a large drink, and instantly felt more awake than he had previously that day. He sat down on the couch and turned on one of his vidgames. He played for about an hour before Cronk and Zephyr came in from fishing. They were wet, but had brought in a nice catch of Frilka Fish.

"Is Talwyn up yet?" Cronk asked.

"No…why?" Ratchet responded.

"She's usually up before now." Zephyr added in worry.

Ratchet looked at the holo-clock. 9:30. Zephyr was certainly right.

Ratchet raced up the flight of steel steps to Talwyn's bedroom. She was lying on her floor. Unmoving.


	2. Deadline

Deadline

Ratchet ran over to her and felt her neck for a pulse. And to his surprise (and relief), there was one. Then, he eyed a small dart lodged in her ankle. Ratchet carefully pulled it out. He recognized it almost instantly. It was a sleeper dart. And, attached to it, was a small, bloodstained piece of paper. He opened it up, and read it.

"Pitiful Creature! You probably thought that your adventures were over after defeating that crazy cyborg Dr. Nefarious. But your quest is far from over! Meet me in the Leonoid Galaxy, and let us finish what we began!"

-Lord Vorselon

Ratchet actually had guessed that Vorselon was behind it all. But after reading that note, he was sort of scared. But now was not the time for being scared. It was time for action!

Ratchet grabbed Clank and ran down the stairs into the living room, there he activated the waiting teleporter and warped to the outside. The actual space station was sitting on one of the largest asteroids of the ring. There were many others. Aphelion, his trusty starship, was on another asteroid far away. But, luckily, there were teleporter cannons on all of the asteroids. Allowing easy access from rock to rock.

Ratchet had just activated Cannon Zeta when a Vorselon troop appeared from behind him. Ratchet manifested his Omniwrench, and made quick work of him. Then, he spotted Vorselon's warship along the Space Horizon. He jumped into the teleporter cannon and began to fly toward Aphelion.

But, another troop destroyed Cannon Zeta. And so, with no two cannons to connect with, the translucent tube that Ratchet and Clank were flying through ceased to exist, and they began to fall through space. They were somersaulting through the asteroid ring's artificial gravity and air. And, by now, an awful thought had struck Ratchet: He was going to die!

Meanwhile, Aphelion had been sleeping when she suddenly awoke to a Lombax's scream. She started her engines. Her pilot was falling through space and would surely die if she did not react in time. Calculating intercept point=:) Target acquired=:) Adjusting flight path to 37 degrees south=:) Launching…

Suddenly, Ratchet was no longer falling through space like a meteor, but he was in the pilot seat of Aphelion! He closed the Shatterglas cockpit hatch, and flew back to the station with great relief and everlasting gratitude toward his starship.

As Ratchet and Clank landed at the entrance, he met with Justin, his nephew. Justin was a one year old Lombax who highly enjoyed playing vidgames with his uncle and clank.

"There's something wrong with Miss Talwyn, uncle Ratchet!" He said with apparent worry.

"We know." Clank replied. "But there is no reason to worry. Miss Apogee was simply put into a mini-coma by a high velocity, high octane Class G 296745 tranquilizer dart."

"You are _such_ a _nerd._" Ratchet declared.


	3. Pack Up and Head Out

Pack Up and Head Out 

Talwyn heard a faint voice from far, far away. Or, so it seemed.

"She's dead!"

"Shut up ya durn fool! She's breathin'!"

Cronk? Zephyr? Her eyes were opening slightly.

"Give me the bucket."

Bucket? Talwyn's eyes opened wider. She saw an outline of Ratchet's fur, and a metallic outline of a bucket. Filled with icy water.

She opened her eyes so wide that her irises could have flown out.

"I'M AWAKE! I'M AWAKE!" She screamed.

Apparently, she had screamed just in time. Ratchet was just about to drench her with a large bucket of ice water. He put it down and said: "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She replied as she tried to get up, and found that her ankle ached. She bent down to hold it when she felt something. She brought up her hand to find that it was stained red with blood.

It took her about two seconds to figure out what had happened.

"Who shot me!" she demanded.

"No one shot you." Ratchet replied uneasily. "Well, not with a bullet. With a sleeper dart."

She was standing now. The bleeding had stopped, but she still felt the pain.

"Cronk, get me a bandage and some nanotech." She ordered.

She limped over to Ratchet.

"_Who… shot…me?" _She demanded again, this time with a very serious voice.

Ratchet didn't want her to worry, but there was no denying the inevitable.

"Vorselon."Ratchet said with deep regret.

A look of worry was on Talwyn's face as she plopped down on the couch. Cronk was at his feet giving her the nanotech and wrapping the bandage on her wounded ankle.

"We need to stop this goon before he does some serious damage to Leonoid." She said.

"We'd better start packing, then." Ratchet said.

He was upstairs packing all of his armor sets approximately thirty seconds after he said those words. And Talwyn, being able to walk now, ran up the stairs and entered Ratchet's room.

"I'm coming too." She declared.

"No, Talwyn." Replied Ratchet. "Stay here."

"But they could kill you!"

"Don't worry, that's nothing new."

He ran downstairs to the kitchen. Here he grabbed his food. This included a box of Stylus Shavings, some Sewer Shark meat, and a few jugs of extra strong sludge.

Talwyn came running down the stairs.

"Ratchet, do you remember the Dimensionator?" This got his attention. "You would have never survived without me."

Ratchet thought back to the days of Emperor Tachyon. How he killed him on a desolate asteroid in the middle of space. How he had used the Dimensionator to exile the cragmites. It nearly killed _him. _She was right.

"Okay." He said. "You can come."

Talwyn smiled as they approached the north teleporter pad.

"C'mon, Clank!" Ratchet yelled.

Clank came running down the stairs and hopped onto Ratchet's connector bolt. Acting as a backpack. And Clank had equipped his jetpack upgrade, just in case.

"I thought it would be nice to have a few extra things." Talwyn said as they approached their ships.

"Oh, yeah?" Ratchet said. "Like what?"

"Like two Galactic maps, one for each of us, and reservations for a nice hotel on Planet Pokitaru."

"Why?" Ratchet asked.

"Because," Talwyn continued. "After this is over, we're both gonna need one heck of a massage."

They hopped into their ships, Ratchet flipping Clank into Aphelion's co-pilot seat. Ratchet and Talwyn entered the coordinates to the Leonoid Galaxy and took off. Unaware of what lay ahead.


	4. The Lost Frontier

The Lost Frontier

"Activating hyperspace jump." Ratchet said. And the ship was instantly surrounded by what appeared to be an orange tunnel. With color pixels as far as the eye could see. Every little dot alternated between orange, white, and yellow-colors.

"The journey to the Leonoid galaxy will take approximately 13 hours." Said Aphelion. "Would you like some 10-hour Cryosleep?"

"No thank you," Ratchet said. "Just turn on the radio."

"Do you request a specific station?"

"Pirate Radio."

'Ahoy me hearties!' said the radio voice between hiccups. "It's your old friend Rusty Pete! (hic) And this be _Pirate Radio!_ (hic) Our songs are better than the (hic) Pirate's Jig! But before we get back to our classic (hic) rock 'n' roll tunes, just a quick reminder that Sally's Pub's All-You-Can-Drink-Grog-Fest is next week! (hic) And all you REAL pirates had better (hic) do yourself a favor and (hic) show up! Sally's Pub! A proud sponsor of Pirate Radio! (hic) Now let's get back to the classic tunes that we (hic) make new again!'

Then the DJ played "Born to be Wild" in the system.

"Oh, this is my favorite." Ratchet said. And he started singing along.

"Get your engine running! Head out on the highway! Looking for adventure! And whatever comes our way! Yeah darling, gonna make it happen! Take the world in a love embrace! Fire all of your guns at once! And explode into SpAAAaaaaAAAAce! Like a true nature child!"

"Ratchet!" Clank said. They had exited hyperspace for some reason.

"We were born, born to be wild!!" Ratchet had his eyes closed.

"Ratchet!!" Clank yelled. There were incoming Vorselon fighter pilots.

"We would have climbed so high!

"RATCHET!!!!" They were firing on the ship!

"NEVER GONNA DIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! Born to be WiiiiiIIIIiiiild!!!!! " Ratchet screamed. He started doing many barrel rolls to show he was having fun. (As well as avoiding the enemy fire.) But he wasn't showing any sign of knowing that the fighters even existed.

The fighters flew right over Aphelion. Clank looked behind them in the rear view mirror. In a hasty attempt to turn around, one pilot crashed into another, creating a chain reaction and destroying the other ships in the process. This was followed by a large explosion. But Ratchet was too focused on the ending guitar solo.

When the song was over, Ratchet opened his eyes.

"Hey! We're out of hyper space!" he noticed.

"Yes." Clank said. "Because of the enemy fighter pilots."

Fighter pilots? Ratchet looked around, but he couldn't find any debris that may have suggested that fighter pilots ever existed.

"Are you imagining things again, Clank?" Ratchet said, remembering the "Zoni."

"Oh, never mind," Clank said as they re-entered hyperspace.


	5. Malthus Sector

Malthus Sector

When Aphelion finally caught up with Talwyn's ship in hyperspace, she seemed as if she had been worried.

"Where the HECK have you two BEEN?!" Talwyn said via Visi-Chat. Ratchet had presumed correctly. She had been worried. It was apparent ever since he saw her face again.

"We were caught up in deep space." Ratchet replied. But then he looked at her again, and realized that that wasn't enough. "It's a long story. There were some Vorselon fighters that we needed to take care of."

"If Vorselon's giving us trouble, then we ought to be on high alert." Talwyn observed. "I've got a feeling that this time, he's prepped and ready. He's probably got his armies very heavily armed."

But Ratchet had heard this excuse before. "When aren't they heavily armed?" He replied.

"Now entering Malthus Sector." Aphelion said as they exited hyperspace.

"Malthus Sector?" Ratchet said, dumbfounded. "Never heard of it."

"I've heard of it," Said Talwyn. "It's said to be home to some of the most technologically advanced planets in the Omniverse."

"Might be an ideal vacation spot sometime," Ratchet said.

"Hey," Ratchet said, "isn't that Vorselon's Warship?"

Everyone looked out their windshields at that point. Ratchet was right. There it was. The giant, green, frying pan-shaped warship that was probably the size of two of the Apogee Space Station. And there was the tiny landing bay. They had set course for it when they had suddenly taken fire from enemy fighters! _Clank was right!_ Ratchet thought, and resolved to listen to his friend more.

Everyone broke course and engaged the squadron. They released their weapons, but the fighters were clearly highly trained, and immediately broke their own formation.

No one seemed to care, though. They locked on their crosshairs once again, and let loose their best missiles. This did the job of sending half the squadron plummeting to the unknown of the space below them, but the other half easily evaded the projectiles.

"It's like trying to hit nanomites from a kilo cubit away," Ratchet commented. But, after what seemed like several painstaking hours, they finally brought down the fighters with their remaining ammo.

That is, all except one. Its pilot was fighting to survive his damages, and, in his agony, let fly all the weapons his little ship was carrying. All the missiles missed them, but one rather powerful one hit Talwyn's ship.

"AAUUGGGHHH!!!!" That was all Ratchet heard over his radio for five seconds. "Ratchet!!! I'm hit!!! My landing flaps are offline!!!! I can't land!!!! WHAT DO I DO?????!!!!!!"

"Well," Ratchet began. "First of all, calm down. I'm bleeding from the ears. And secondly…"

Ratchet looked around for a planet. Finding one, he continued.

"Secondly, land on Planet Mektar. I'm sure that they will have the technology to fix your ship. I'll meet you on Planet Pokitaru."

Talwyn realized that she had no choice. She coasted her ship on a reserve tank to the unknown planet.

"Looks like we're flying solo, Clank."


	6. Warship Warzone

Warship Warzone

Ratchet flew to the tiny landing bay and set down his trusty star- ship. Carefully equipping his O2 mask before opening Aphelion's tiny airlock, he opened the hatch and ran into the large landing bay door that led to the warship's Hangar 7. After he stepped inside, the doors closed, and air was pumped into the room.

Once he was able to breathe, he removed his mask and scrolled through his Manifestor's menu of weapons and gadgets, trying to find an appropriate tool of destruction for the job.

Almost instantly, he decided to bring out his Mag-Net Cannon. It was fully upgraded and had one specific upgrade that shot bombs into and out of the net of electricity. Bringing maximum possible damage to anything inside, or out. Perfect.

Ratchet ran across the hangar floor until he got to a flight of steps. He decided to walk up those. Once at the top, he noticed a silver, steel door with a versa-fuse next to it. He pressed a button on the handle of his Omniwrench Millennium 12, and swung it and the fuse. From ten feet away, the head of the wrench came flying out of the body of the tool, and attached to the fuse. But the body and the head were still attached to each other by a trail of electricity. Pulling with all his might, he tried and tried to rip out the fuse. But it wouldn't come out. But what it did do was slip away from the wrench's tight grasp, and came flying towards Ratchet. It hit him right on his muzzle. Ratchet dropped the wrench, and covered his muzzle with his hands with his eyes tightly shut, and found that he was bleeding badly.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ratchet sat in a corner covering his bleeding nose. With Clank standing next to him.

"Ow, owow, ow." He said in a muffled and snuffly voice.

He got up, and angrily stomped over to the door. He manifested his Judicator and let fly missiles on the door. It broke like an eggshell and Ratchet stormed into the Central Hub.

"WHERE ARE YOU VORSELON?????!!!!!!!" He exclaimed in unnecessarily angry modulations.

"Ratchet, stay quiet!" Clank said. "We don't want to sound the alarm!"

Just then, an eerie red light began to flash throughout the Hub. The alarm. Ratchet began to run toward the elevator in the center of the room. But he was cut off by an electrified Vorselon troop.

"He's electrified!" Ratchet pointed out. "The Mag-Net Cannon won't work on him!"

There were more of them now. They were surrounding Ratchet. Clank counted six of them. Ratchet didn't care. They fired on him. With the aid of Clank's Thruster Pack upgrade, he was easily able to do a backward somersault out of the circle of enemies. However, one of the enemies was prepared for that, and he whacked Ratchet in the thighs, knocking off his Manifestor. With no weapons to work with, it was going to be Lombax vs. Robot. Hand-to-hand combat.

One of the troops lunged at Ratchet with a shredder for a fist. He grabbed the cyborg's wrist and tossed him off the edge of the narrow walkway. The next one he grabbed by the head, and punched into the robot's glass skull, and ripped out an optic sensor. It fell to the ground.

"Ouch!!" Ratchet said waving his fist which was now throbbing.

The next 'bot he simply decided to throw into the two behind it. He grabbed the wrist of the one he would throw, spun, and released his grip, sending the robot crashing into the two behind it, and sending all of them off the edge of the clear walkway. One more to go. And he had blasters for hands. The robot shot at Ratchet, but it proved to be inevitable of who would win the fight. Ratchet jumped a few inches over the robots head, grabbed him, and, using the kinetic energy between them and Ratchet's upper arm strength, he flung the infernal robot into the steel pit below the walkway.

Though the robot was down, it certainly wasn't out. Moments before its impact, the robot fired its final shot. It flew up and hit Ratchet squarely in the chest. Ratchet stepped back, choked for the wind knocked out of him, and collapsed onto the ground. Clank, thinking fast, sprinted to the nearest GrummelNet Vendor, bought nanotech, brought it back and applied it to Ratchet. Ratchet was almost instantly revived.

"Thanks, Clank." Ratchet said.

"Do not mention it." Clank replied.

"C'mon, let's go kick some robot butt!" Ratchet exclaimed enthusiastically. They ran into the waiting elevator. It must have been programmed to know where to go, because it instantly started moving.

As the elevator slowed down and they stepped out, Ratchet said, "I thought that that robot had killed me for sure."

"Unfortunately, no," Said Lord Vorselon, surprising them both. "But that is my duty."


	7. Demise Date

Demise Date

Ratchet checked the surroundings that were around him. What he saw was the air lock right next to him. Ratchet had figured it out. Vorselon was really desperate now. One of them was going to have to kill the other, and be thrown out the air lock.

"Now we will see who is truly superior," Vorselon said. "In an epic battle to the death, I intend to rid the universe of you and your pathetic race."

"My race?!" Ratchet said. "You gotta be kiddin' me! The Lombaxes left a long time ago!"

"I know." Vorselon replied. "They fled here. Afraid of that miserable excuse for a villain, Tachyon."

"None of this will happen until you kill ME!" Ratchet bravely said.

"You ARE going to let me do this, you know!"

"Why?!"

"Because it is the only way to save your nephew's LIFE!!"

Just then, a large cage rose up from out of the floor, confining Ratchet's only family. Justin.

Ratchet gasped in horror. "NO!!!" He screamed rather loudly. He had an important decision to make. Lose the galaxy, and what was left of his race, or, lose Justin. This was an unbearable decision.

"You can put an end to it all," Vorselon said. "The air lock is right there."

Ratchet understood all too well. But he didn't want to kill himself. He had other things to look forward to in his life. But he wouldn't have to. He had made a decision. One that would change the way he lived, it would change the way Ratchet and Clank's adventures would end up after that, and would make Ratchet feel that empty hole inside him that had been yearning to create itself.

"No."

That was the single syllable that Ratchet uttered.

"What?" Vorselon said.

"No, Vorselon. Neither of those things will ever happen."

Vorselon aimed his blaster hand at the floor that was next to Justin's cell. Ratchet didn't understand. And he must have raised one eyebrow involuntarily, because Vorselon said, "Do you know what your nephew's cage is standing on? Uralian Talcstone."

Ratchet new about Uralian Talcstone. It was THE THINNEST mineral, the thinnest rock, the thinnest THING in the ENTIRE Omniverse. Even the weight shifts of an insect walking could cause the entire area of the stone to _shatter._ And Justin was standing there, scared, in a cage, on top of a 30x30 slab of Uralian Talcstone. This was standing at the devil's knees as Ratchet knew it.

"Justin!"

Clank saw it, the chance of a lifetime; it would probably save the lives of Ratchet, Justin, and thousands of Lombaxes. He threw the time-bomb that would be heard 'round the Omniverse.

Vorselon saw it coming. He fired his blaster at the Talcstone. But, the quantum bomb was too fast. It landed, and froze Vorselon and the blast dead in their tracks. Seeing his chance, Ratchet started whistling innocently, walked to Vorselon, stuck his hand into the translucent sphere of quantum energy, and turned the gun toward Vorselon's chest, and stepped away.

There was the ringing of an alarm clock, and the _broing _of the sphere disappearing, and the blast of a gun.

"AUGH!!!" Vorselon screamed in slight agony as the shot hit him. "I do not know how you did that, but it will take more than that to stop ME."

He shot Ratchet in his arm.

"NNRRGGHH!!!" Ratchet yelled through clenched teeth. He was certainly correct. Ratchet decided that play time was over. And that the Mag-Net Cannon would not work on him either. He pulled out his Judicator. He let loose all of the missiles it had to offer. But each and every one of them was deflected by Vorselon's Trillium-Alloy steel armor.

"I did go to the liberty of upgrading my suit," He said. "All the better to kill you with, my dear Lombax."

Ratchet was MAD now. Vorselon had taken many things from him. Now, he was about to take away the only family he had left. And that was crossing the line. It was time for a fight. He manifested the ku-de-gra. The big guns. The weapon that was blacklisted eons ago. A gun that could get him thrown in Zordoom just for looking at. A _TURRET_ that was voted "Most Likely to End Life as We Know It." The ultimate tool of destruction. The RYNO V. With a look of seriousness on his face, Ratchet aimed the illegal weapon at Vorselon's face.

"W-w-where did you get that RYNO?!" Vorselon asked in absolute fear.

"All the better to kill you with," Ratchet said as he cocked the gun. _Click-click. _"My Dear."

What happened next was an event that Justin would remember for the rest of his life. It shocked him and worried him to his core. He was witnessing the slaughter, bloodshed, destruction and confusion that was the releasing of the RYNO rockets. Hundreds came out every second. It was the most gruesome thing he had ever seen, and would ever see. And he loved it.

"Yeah, go Uncle Ratchet!" Justin said. "Kick his butt!"

The releasing of the rockets was shaking the room. It was cracking the Talcstone.

"Uncle Ratchet!" Justin yelled. But he was unheard. All Ratchet cared about was killing the psychotic savage in front of him. The Talcstone cracked more.

"UNCLE!" Justin yelled. But Ratchet had just destroyed Vorselon's suit.

It frayed and electrocuted the tank which his head had been floating in. His whole suit, his armor, weapons, and powers all exploded. His little, one-eyed, green alien head popped right out of the tank it was in.

Ratchet walked up to it, looked it the eye, and said, with his foot over it: "DON'T. MESS. WITH. MY. NEPHEW." And squished it. Vorselon's blood flew everywhere. He was vanquished. But, the final vibration of Ratchet's foot stamping shattered the Talcstone. And Justin's cage started to fall out the air lock.

"Self-Destruct activated," Said a robotic voice over the intercom. "5…4…3…"

Ratchet cast himself off the edge of the air lock.

"3…2…1…"

Above him appeared a massive explosion. As large as 7 of Planet Veldin. You probably know it as the Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant. When he had fallen too far to hear it anymore, he then heard Justin's screams. He looked down to see him flailing. He flew down to him and grabbed him.

"I got'cha," he said. "Now all we have to do is wait for Aphelion to…"

"Um…Ratchet?" Clank said from Ratchet's connector bolt.

"What?"

"Aphelion, well… is on… the warship."

Ratchet looked up. He once again saw the explosion.

"Aphelion!!!"

Just then, they were sitting in the seat of a ship, but it wasn't Aphelion. It was a clunker compared to Aphelion. Then he heard an old, robotic voice behind him.

"Lombaxes! They always need savin'!"

"Cronk?" Ratchet said as he looked behind his seat. And there he was!

"What about me?" Zephyr's voice said. Ratchet looked to his right, and saw him, too!

"And how about me?" Said the voice of a certain female Markazian. Ratchet smiled as he turned to his right and saw Talwyn's face.

"Oh, wow," He said, almost squinting.

"What're you doing?" She asked.

"Nothing," Ratchet quickly.

There was a long pause between everyone.

"To Planet Pokitaru!!" Ratchet and Talwyn said together on accident. Both their faces went very red.


	8. Checking In

Checking In

As Talwyn flew the starship in hyperspace with a set course to the Solana Galaxy, the entire company was talking about Vorselon's ultimate defeat.

"It's no wonder this whipper-snapper saved the universe seven times," Commented Zephyr.

"Yep," Cronk agreed. "You oughta have yer own holo-film series!"

"You did great, Ratchet," Talwyn said. "Tell us everything that happened!"

"…and then," Ratchet said, telling the whole story. "I took out my RYNO and shot the life right out of 'im!"

Apparently, he was doing a real good job of telling his story, because everyone was listening with great empathy. Even Talwyn had put the ship on auto-pilot just to turn around and listen to the tale.

"His head popped right outa his tank!" Ratchet continued. "Then I went up and smooshed it!" Ratchet held up his boot. There was still a little blood on it.

"EEW," Everyone said in unison.

"I know," Ratchet said. "It was disgusting, but it needed to be done nonetheless."

"Now entering Solana Galaxy," Talwyn's ship said. "Creating course for Planet Pokitaru."

"So yer not lettin' those reservations go to waste, are ya, Tal?" Ratchet said.

"No way that's happening," Talwyn said. "We would all miss out on one heck of a massage, huh?"

The entire ship went ecstatic after she said those fateful words. Not even Ratchet's Combustor's shot could not calm everyone down. (Even though it was only loaded with a blank shot.) In fact, it could hardly be heard over the commotion and excitement of the fact that they were going to get massages.

"Oh my, God!" Justin said to Cronk. "Can you believe that we get ta get massages? Oh, it's gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah," Ratchet said. "And the best part is that the masseur is a cute girl!"

Talwyn slapped him across the muzzle. And if there was anything more sensitive than a Lombax's fur, it was his muzzle. It began to ache as bad as it does when you take a sharp blow to the knee. It began the traditional aching almost instantaneously.

"Owwwww!!!!" Ratchet howled in pain. Clank calculated the reaction time at approximately point three seconds. "What was tha…?"

Just then, Ratchet understood all too well. "I'm sorry." He said.

"Thank you." Talwyn replied.

"Approximate distance from Planet Pokitaru: One megacubit," Said Talwyn's starship.

That meant that they only had one million cubits to go before they entered the breathable atmosphere of Pokitaru. And they were getting closer to the planet at a slow rate of twenty-five thousand cubits per second. About a minute later, the ship said: "Entering atmosphere of Planet Pokitaru."

"Everyone fasten their Space-Savs!" Talwyn said as she slowed down the starship and switched off the boosters. Space-Savs were a ship safety device that no real adventurer would fly without. It was basically designed to keep the pilot and any passengers in their seats so they wouldn't get snapped back by the force of gravity that any planet or moon had. This was an ingenious device that was invented by an old friend of Ratchet's named Nikone. Nikone was a Lombax who lived in the Leonoid Galaxy, but not with all the others. He lived on Planet Muggon in the Yetis Sector. He and Ratchet had not met in a long time.

Anyway, everyone fastened the belts and instantly found that they could not move. (Even though they all knew that it was useless to try it)

"We're all prepped for landing," Ratchet informed Talwyn as they came closer to the Jowai Resort. They were getting ever so close now, and three short seconds after he said that, the landing pad came into view. However, they were going pretty fast. A little too fast maybe…

"We're coming in too hot!" Talwyn said.

"It's okay," Ratchet said. "Just circle the landing area once or twice to burn off extra speed."

Talwyn did so. And Ratchet was right. The ship slowed down very quickly. Once the old ship's rockets were weakened enough to land, she carefully pulled in and set the ship down.

"Space-Sav system deactivated." Talwyn's ship said. The straps detached, and went back into the seats. "Opening hatch door."

The hatch opened, and everyone jumped out. Except for Talwyn, who used her jet-pack to float out of the ship. When Ratchet was out, he ran to the other side and saw Justin, scared to drop the six feet to the ground beneath him.

"C'mon, Justin," Ratchet said, soothingly. "I'm right here, just drop down. Nothing bad is going to happen." Then, Justin dropped down, or more like _fell._ Being only three feet tall, he had three more feet to go. But Ratchet, true to his word, caught Justin and put him down.

"Thanks, Uncle Ratchet." He said with gratitude.

"No problem, pal."

Ratchet rang the bell at the front counter. Almost immediately, a Cazar appeared from beneath the desk and said: "Welcome to the Jowai Resort. How may I be of assistance?" He was very polite.

"Can you rent us an island?" Ratchet said.

"Sure." The Cazar replied. "Which one do you prefer?"

"Hmm…" Ratchet said as he looked up at the island chart. He must have looked puzzled, because the concierge said: "Just to put this out there, we're having a special on the royal beach this month, but, it's probably a little out of your price range, anyhow."

Ratchet checked the bolt account on his Manifestor, it was at a steady amount of 1,250,000 bolts. _All in a day's work. _Ratchet thought to himself.

"No, it's okay," Ratchet said. "How much is it?"

"10,000 bolts a night, sir," The Cazar said.

"Done," Ratchet said giving the concierge a stack of 1,000 bolt pieces. But, maybe a few too many…

"Oops," Ratchet said, giving the clerk a quick wink. "I must have counted wrong."

"Thank you, sir!" The Cazar said with gratitude. "Thank you! Oh, would you like for us to fly your luggage to the island? Oh, and park your starship in the VIP lot?"

"Sure," Ratchet said. "That would be great."

"A transport craft is awaiting you, sir," The concierge said, giving Ratchet an envelope. "Please enjoy your stay, and I hope you find the island to your liking."

Ratchet was standing on the side of the transport hovercraft where the railing was. He was leaning against it, looking out to the many oceans and little land that was Planet Pokitaru. About ninety-five percent of the planet was covered with water. It was all dark for him though, because he was wearing sunglasses that he purchased for five bolts in the Jowai Resort gift shop.

Justin was next to him, watching the waves in the water as they flew by at 80 miles per hour. Then, the little Lombax noticed something in the water.

"Uncle Ratchet," He said. "What's that?"

Ratchet looked over the water where Justin was pointing. He noticed some shark fins lingering above the water.

"Those are Sewer Sharks," Ratchet explained. "Very dangerous creatures. I've gone fishing for them a few times.

This puzzled Justin. "How (and why) do you fish for them if they're so dangerous?" He asked.

"Trust me," Ratchet said pulling down his glasses a bit. "You don't wanna know."

As they flew up to the island, a large cabana in the middle of it came into view. Once they got a little closer, everyone noticed that it was three stories tall, just by looking at the windows.

When they landed on the island, everyone looked up at the thirty- foot house that was to be their home for the next week. Justin rushed in the instant he was off the hovercraft yelling: "Cool!!" Ratchet followed. Ratchet caught up with him in the living room. Justin was amazed at the technologically advanced room that he was standing in.

"You were right, Uncle Ratchet!" He said. "They have a Crystalline 2000 gaming system!"

Justin ran up the flights of stairs to look at the rest of the rooms.

"Dibs on this room!" He yelled from the second floor.

Then, Ratchet heard the _stomp-stomps _of Justin's little feet running up the stairs. From the top floor, he yelled: "There are two master suites up here! And best of all, they all have Holo-visions!"

Holo-visions were basically TVs in the Polaris Galaxy. You get around a thousand channels at the least on each one.

"Ooh, that's not all," Justin said. "Their all equipped with HVPs!"

That stood for Holo-Vid Player.

After everyone got inside, they stuffed their things in dressers that almost inhabited each room. Once everyone was settled, Ratchet and Justin looked at each other and gave a competitive smile.

"I'm sooooo gonna kick your butt at my hoverbike racing vid-game!" Justin said.

"In your dreams," Ratchet said. "You'd better get your notebook out, because yer gonna get schooled."

Within minutes they were neck and neck on the track. They might as well have been light-years ahead of the other racers, because it was a two-bike race to the finish on the last lap.

"It's all over, Uncle!" Justin said playfully mocking Ratchet.

"Are you kidding?!" Ratchet said. "Take this!"

Just then, a machine gun appeared on the side of Ratchet's hoverbike. It shot out barrage after barrage at Justin's 'bike, hitting him every time until the bike collapsed, and started rolling on the ground. After coming to rest in a smoldering heap of junk, it exploded.

But after the game reset Justin's hoverbike, he used all of his boost to get back to Ratchet's position. Ratchet put his hand over Justin's face to block his view. The little Lombax smacked it out of the way.

"What's yer hand doin' in my face?" He said. "My hand's not in your face!"

By now, everyone had gathered around to watch the epic hoverbike championship of the cabana.

It was now the final stretch. 1,000 yards to the finish. They both let loose with the boost. But, just a few dozen yards before the checkered flag, Ratchet ran out of boost, and Justin lurched ahead, taking the win.

"WOOHOO!" He shouted. "I did it!"

Everyone clapped while Ratchet looked at the Holo-clock.

"Good God!" He yelled. "It's 11:16! Time for bed everyone."

"Aww…" Everyone moaned as they made their way to their rooms.

Ratchet walked into Justin's room. He was watching some late-night cartoons before falling asleep.

"'Night, buddy," He said.

"Good night, Uncle Ratchet," Justin replied.

As he made his way up to his room, he thought: _What a nice kid. He's just _way _too good at vidgames. _


	9. Night Terrors

Night Terrors

As Ratchet walked through the hallway, he remembered that he would have to sleep with Talwyn because there weren't enough rooms in the cabana to have one person have his own room. Except for Justin. But, either way, he was excited, but maybe a little bit scared at the fact of this. After all, she was unpredictable. When Ratchet invaded her station years ago, her welcoming party was an all-expense-paid trip out the airlock. But in a matter of minutes, she was telling him to lock up on his way out. But, little did he know that he had ended up meeting the love of his life in person for the very first time.

Ratchet entered the room, but didn't look at the bed just yet. First, he went into the bathroom. He decided he would skip the hydro-shower and save hot water for tomorrow. So, therefore, he just brushed his teeth and combed his fur (secretly all over). And fluffed it. This was a very important part of a Lombax's hair grooming process. He did it to keep his hair tidy and straight. But, he usually did a lot better of a job in the morning due to the fact that he would be doing things again then. Ratchet finally left the bathroom, and looked at the bed. There she was. She was _smiling. _For Ratchet, that was either really good or really bad. But Ratchet always hoped for the best.

"Guess what we're gonna do," She said with anticipation. But Ratchet was secretly scared to know.

"We are gonna watch the _SCARIEST _movie in the Polaris Galaxy," She continued.

Ratchet sighed with relief. "Which one?" He asked, getting a little more excited. This might not have been so bad after all.

Talwyn grinned again. "It's called _Stalk and_ _Murder_!"

Ratchet had heard of that one, but it was old. In fact, it came out in holo-theaters when he was a young kit. But he could never scrape together the bolts or the time to go see it. Everyone said that even if you did have the money and time, you certainly couldn't get in. It was the biggest blockbuster that had ever hit Fastoon. But all in all, he was excited to see it for the first time.

Ratchet climbed into the bed and Talwyn turned on the Holo-vision. Ratchet had to admit that he was nervous. But it wasn't because of the movie or the fact that it was Rated X for intense blood and gore and strong language, but it was because he was watching this film in bed, with Talwyn, at midnight. After a few previews of other rather dirty movies, the show started.

Ratchet checked the screen. There wasn't much blood or gore yet, so Ratchet saw a chance. But how would he play it? _Maybe I should try that arm thing. _He thought. _No, it's too simplistic. Ooh, maybe…no, to complex. Or perhaps…no, of course not! She's a Markazian, not a Lombax. She's got no fur. I could try that thing where…NO! It's too darn sexual. _Ratchet tried thinking up other moves he could make. But, they were all too stupid, too obvious, too explicit, or just a sure crack-fire way to get him smacked before he even started. But, eventually, he came right back to his arm thing idea again. It was simple, but it wasn't explicit, and it almost always worked on HV so…

Ratchet raised his arms, as if stretching, opened his mouth, as if silently yawning, and slowly brought his arms down, just behind her head. He was looking away, but his peripheral vision helped him determine where that little area of neck behind her head was. He brought his elbow down over it. Perfection. Talwyn's head instantly came down over Ratchet's shoulder. Ratchet only let a small smile escape his lips, but in his head was a different story…

_I did it! I did it! It worked! It worked! Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!!! Aw, heck yeah!! I can't believe I actually pulled it off!!! Oh, yeah! Uh, huh!! _

It was almost as if there was a celebratory party going on in his cerebellum. But, the party ended then and there. He had other things to focus on. Like how to keep Talwyn's head on his shoulder for the rest of the movie. Ratchet decided to just focus on the movie and make it last as long as possible.

There were two Cazar kits walking home from the park, apparently, and were walking home when they noticed the candy shop. They dawdled by it when suddenly, a horrendous figure that looked like an undead surgeon broke through the glass and landed in front of the two Cazars. It looked like his brain was about ready to pop out. He raised his machete and brought it down over one of the kit's face. What came out was way more blood than could've possibly come from a Cazar's head veins.

Talwyn uttered a little squeal and put her head down on Ratchet's shoulder and held him tightly. "It's okay," Ratchet said. "I'm here."

But it wasn't okay at all. The living child ran for his young life. But the undead man was faster. He raised the great sword, and severed off the kit's upper torso. This sent his organs spilling everywhere. The man, his surgeon's apron now painted red with blood, laughed an evil, revenge-filled laugh.

Ratchet screamed and pulled the covers over them. They held each other tightly and shook with paralyzed fear. Talwyn began lightly sobbing over Ratchet's shoulder, but Ratchet did not do the same. He was a brave hero, and heroes don't cry. But what he did do was start to think about Aphelion. Aphelion!! She was dead! Ratchet had forgotten all about it, and he felt bad for forgetting his fallen comrade. Heroes still don't cry, though.

For a while, the movie was nothing but the awful sounds of blood splattering, and the horrendous screams of the helpless victims. There was also the loud swearing that took place before the little children or teenagers were horrifically dismembered. If Justin were in here, this experience would pass by his gruesome RYNO V experience by light-years. It was the most bloody, horrific, gory, savage movie Ratchet had ever seen. But, it only ranked #4 on Ratchet's List of Unnecessarily Disgusting Stuff.

What seemed like an eternity later, the movie finally ended. Ratchet looked to check, on a dare from Talwyn. It was all clear. There was no sign of anything. The screen on the Holo-vision was completely black, and the room was dark.

Ratchet went back under the covers and said: "It's alright, Tal." He said, trying to convince her that the movie was officially over. "The vid's over." But Talwyn showed no sign of wanting to talk, or wanting to stop shaking. "'Night, Tal," He said, and turned over to go to sleep. And, just as he was about to doze off, Ratchet heard a faint piece of Talwyn's voice say: "Good night, Ratchet."

The dream that followed was the most horrifying one Ratchet had ever seen.

"**Come on, come on, Tal!" Ratchet said. "Hurry up with the system hack! The murderer is right behind us!"**

"**I'm tryin'," Talwyn said in reply. "But the freaking door won't budge."**

**Just then, the undead surgeon came slowly limping toward them like the zombie he was. Ratchet and Talwyn both screamed. Talwyn pushed on the door harder.**

"**HURRY UP!!" Ratchet screamed. Finally, Talwyn decided to shoot open the door. She drew her blaster, but before she could shoot, she dropped it. She turned to Ratchet. The blue eyes that Ratchet had come to love were now a sinister pitch black. **

"**It is okay, Ratchet," Said a voice that was not Talwyn's. "It will all be over soon."**

Talwyn's dream was quite a bit different.

**Ratchet and her were walking down a road on Planet Kerwan. It was very peaceful that evening. But she felt that something was not right…**

"**Hey, Tal," Ratchet said.**

"**Yes, Dear," She replied. **

"**Would you… oh, I dunno, maybe…wanna…Go see a…"**

"**I'd love to." She said. **

**Just then, a horrific undead surgeon popped out from behind an alley, and ran toward them. They both screamed. Just what the man wanted. He raised a chainsaw and sliced her boyfriend in the throat. Ratchet fell to the ground with his neck organs spilling out. The zombie raised the saw over Talwyn's head. She screamed her last scream…**

Ratchet and Talwyn both awoke at the exact same time. They looked at each other. Ratchet notice that Talwyn was about to cry, but instead, she simply said: "You died!!"

Ratchet replied with: "You were possessed!!"

Talwyn had a terrified look on her face. Ratchet had never seen one of _those _looks before. And she had a lot of looks that she would give Ratchet from time to time. Ratchet definitely knew that she didn't like the movie, but she was trying to look tough and shake it off. But it was obvious that she was failing. Ratchet admitted that a machete-wielding undead surgeon was a very scary thing. Ratchet came to an instant decision.

"Look," He said. "No more late night fright movies at midnight, 'kay, Tal?"

"Alright," She responded through scared tears and breaking tones of voice.

Ratchet drifted to a slow sleep once more, and fortunately his nightmares had finally been put to an end almost as quick as they had started, but the same could not be said for Talwyn. She was fidgeting as she tried to fight the helpless battle that was sleeping peacefully. Ratchet was worried, but he knew that there were other things on his mind besides simple nightmares that were all in one's head.

One of those things was Aphelion. His trusty starship was no longer his. She was now residing in the spaceport in the sky. Ratchet hoped that she would have safe passage. Suddenly he felt he was just being extremely religious. But still, he definitely wished he could have flown _her_ to Pokitaru. Hmm…

Another one Ratchet thought that he shouldn't worry about. It was the fact that he allowed Justin to be captured by Vorselon. He left him with Cronk and Zephyr. They were poorly armed and assumed that all the other enemies were as well armed as them, and usually needed Ratchet's help frequently. Ratchet began to have dreams about the fight on the warship. There were many concepts, they varied from happy to frightening, and each one had a message, as if a moral, to tell Ratchet. Ratchet saw each one. But the one he found most important was: "Focus more on what you want, therefore less on what you don't." That was exactly what he would have to do at that point.

Ratchet did not have an important alarm clock to wake him. But, he eventually did wake up. It was a quiet morning, and the sun was shining very brightly. That was odd. _Funny. _Ratchet thought. _On Pokitaru, the sun isn't usually this bright in the morning at six o' clock. Hmm… _Ratchet took a quick glance at the digital clock on the wall. 11:32 AM. _Hmm… Wasn't there something I had to do at noon?_ Ratchet's eyes snapped open like shutters. His eyes looked like sunny-side up eggs in the sun. He turned those eggs on the clock one more time…

"TALWYN!!!!" He screamed as they both got out of bed at the same time. She looked as if there was something awful happening.

"What!" She shot back in worry. "Is the cabana on fire? Is there a burglar?!"

"WORSE!!!!" Ratchet screamed in horror.

Talwyn tried to come up with all the things in her head that could have been worse than that. One thought struck her. "Is the undead surgeon on the loose on the island?!" She asked in dismay.

"Ten times worse than that!!!!" Ratchet shouted.

That stumped Talwyn. She tried hard to think of something ten times worse than that, and nothing immediately sprung to mind.

"We're late for our massages!!!" Ratchet said.

"We're late for our massages???!!!" She said back in disbelief.

There was a short pause. Then they both screamed, "WE"RE LATE FOR OUR MASSAGES!!!!!!"

They ran out into the hallway and into bedrooms screaming, "EVERYBODY GET UP! WE"RE LATE FOR OUR MASSAGES!!!!"


	10. Pub Tails

Pub Tails

Ratchet sat on the sandy beach in front of his cabana. They were all very lucky to have gotten a massage. Fortunately, the visitors in the Royal Beach got a masseur sent to them. Therefore, they got a massage in the beach house. Talwyn had left him to get hers done by a muscular Cazar. Ratchet was jealous of him. _Steal my girl, eh? _He thought. _Not a chance. I'll bet he doesn't even work to get those muscles. I'll bet he's on steroids. Heck! What am I doing sittin' around here? I have to save her. _Ratchet was just about to start running toward the cabana when he was suddenly face-to-face with Talwyn. _No need. _He thought. _It's taken care of._

"How was it?" Ratchet asked.

"Great," Talwyn replied. "I've been tryin' ta reach that spot for months! How was yours?"

"Probably just as awesome," Ratchet said. "It was just as I hoped. That was one hot masseur…"

Ratchet was cut off by Talwyn giving him one of _those_ looks. Ratchet knew he was going to need to back that up with something fast, or he'd end up feeling the wrath of a female Markazian. Not good.

"But, not as awesome as _you,_ Tal," Ratchet decided. "I mean, you've always been like my _mate._"

Ratchet paused at that, he knew that he had not mated in about six years. That was a lot of time. His first mate, Sasha, wasn't exactly the greatest mate a Lombax could ask for. She wanted to raise kits. Ratchet began to think at that point. He was only seventeen at the time, and he would probably make a lousy father.

"You okay, Ratchet?" Talwyn asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ratchet replied. "I was just thinking about my past."

"Hmm," Talwyn said. "Well, Justin wants to know if we can go out tonight."

"Yeah," Justin's voice said excitedly from behind them. "Can we?"

Ratchet thought for a moment. Not about whether the answer was yes, or no, but he was deciding on a place to go. But it must have looked like he was deciding on an answer, because Justin said, "Please?"

"Well," Ratchet said. "There's a nice pub in the Zunis Sector on Zenith Four."

"A _pub?!_" Talwyn said in the blindness of Ratchet. "Absolutely not!"

"It's a root beer pub." Ratchet continued. "Their said to make the best stuff in the galaxy. I've never been there myself, though. But I'm sure that it'll be a great place to go and eat and grab a shot of the specialty. Plus…" Ratchet was now whispering in Talwyn's ear. "…they've got sledge tables there."

Talwyn brightened up at that. Sledge was basically a poker game that was real fun for her (But not anyone who dared to play against her). She was the reigning champion back at the Space Station. Even Ratchet, who had played with a couple of buddies when he was thirteen, living alone in a garage, no more than sixty bolts to his name. But, usually, they would just play with about one bolt at a time each night. Ratchet won about half the time, but he couldn't compare to the awesome talents of Talwyn Apogee. But, it was kind of fun to lose to _her._ This was because of reasons that Ratchet did not know. The game consisted of a full deck of holo-panels, a five thousand bolt buy-in, and the skill required to take your opponents' money. Each player would put a selected amount of bolts into the pot to begin. This was the ante. But in this game, you put in money depending on how sure you are that you are going to win the pot. After this, you are dealt four holo-panels. You bet according to whether or not you have the best hand. After this, you are asked to show your hand. If you have an ace, you are hammered, and you lose. It would be best to fold this hand if you got one. Your cards are judged based on the highest card. If two cards are the same, it will be judged on the second card in the hand, and so on. The winner would take all before-game-bets made by the players, and bets and raises made by the players. This could end up being a lot of money.

"What are we waitin' for?" Talwyn said. "Let's go!"

They all were on the automatic transport crafts in less than four minutes. The crafts raced over the ocean at what seemed like much faster speeds than the trip to the cabana. But no one cared. They were all excited to go out. Ratchet was one excited Lombax. He had never been to this pub before, so it could be an experience for him. But what all was there to do? Well, drink root beer, play a few hands of sledge, and see the sights that this one little pub had to offer. But what was this feeling that Ratchet felt deep inside his nervous system? It wasn't happy, or sad, but he couldn't put his finger on it… _That's it! _Ratchet thought. But he decided to test it out to be sure. He started to move closer to Talwyn. Pretty close, but not too close that she would notice, he didn't want to embarrass himself any further than he had already. Yep, that feeling got stronger every step he took toward her. Ratchet knew from then on what that feeling was. It was love. Ratchet was embarrassed. But, he didn't want to deny it. He kind of liked it. Well, he liked the fact that he had finally found someone. There was indeed someone for Ratchet.

Once the ship docked at the VIP ship lot, they all piled out of the craft eagerly. They all started quickly walking toward the lot. Ratchet was ahead of them all, and he was the first to see the amazing sight that had awaited him a long time.

"Okay," Talwyn said, approaching Ratchet. "I guess we're ready to go. I have some money, my ship starter, and the key to the cabana. Hey, Ratchet, do you have your mon…" Talwyn failed to say "money," and finish her sentence, she was too busy looking at what Ratchet was looking at. Seconds later, everyone else stood there gaping at a ship that had not been there before.

"You are a tough Lombax to find," Aphelion said. "Do you know that?"

"Aphelion!!!!" Ratchet said with ecstasy. "I can't believe it! You're alive! Wait, how are you alive?"

"Well," Aphelion said. "I was…er…asleep in the hangar bay, and then, I started hearing an alarm. It…uh… woke me up, and I heard a voice that said that the self destruct had activated, and I activated the Thrustmaster 1000 to get away from the blast. Then, I noticed that you were falling through space. I activated my Thrustmaster again, and I was about to catch you, but Miss Talwyn's ship got there first."

"So," Ratchet said. "Can you take me and Talwyn to the pub on Zenith Four?"

"Of course. Hop in."

"What about us?" Zephyr asked, referring to him, Cronk, Clank, and Justin.

"Uh…" Ratchet stammered before coming to a conclusion. "_You_ can take Talwyn's ship."

Zephyr understood. "Alright," He said. "We'll meet'cha there."

Ratchet and Talwyn walked toward Aphelion. As they approached, they cockpit hatch opened, to reveal those leather seats that Ratchet had used to sit in during all his interplanetary travel ever since that day he fixed her on Planet Fastoon. Ratchet climbed into the seat. He could feel the long-lost feeling of the seat against his back and the soft material over the steering wheel. It was all there. Ratchet heavily breathed out.

Talwyn seemed a little concerned. "Ratchet, are you okay?" She asked.

"Uh, huh," Ratchet replied, snapping out of his trance. "I'm fine."

With that, Ratchet took off. The hatch was very protective, so no air got through, but the G-force never failed to be right in the cockpit. It pressed them about a half-inch into their seats, but Ratchet still managed to keep his hands on the wheel and maneuver the ship.

"The trip to Planet Zenith Four will take approximately 10 minutes in hyperspace," Aphelion said.

"Alright," Ratchet said. "Just don't give us any Gs, okay?"

Within seconds they were in hyperspace, and Ratchet released his Space-Savs. Talwyn did the same, and they both got into a relaxed position. Ratchet's being placing his feet on the dashboard, and Talwyn's simply stretching, and then returning to her original seated position.

"Have you ever been to this place before, Tal?" Ratchet asked.

"No," She replied. "Never. Have you?"

"Nope."

A long silence followed, and it was almost deafening to the Lombax. But, he managed to stay quiet for the next five minutes.

Then, they exited the orange tube that had previously surrounded them, and Planet Zenith Four came into view. Ratchet shut off the thrusters and allowed the ship to coast down to the planet slowly. There was neither too much, nor too little speed. It was the perfect speed to be used to enter an unstable planet like Zenith Four. With the skill of an ace pilot Valkyrie, he entered the atmosphere. The sudden burst of gravity and air gave some G-force, but Ratchet was prepared for anything.

"Aphelion!" He shouted out of his mouth which was being restrained by the force of gravity. "Engage the Gravo-metric stabilizers!"

Then, six small engines, three on each wing, came out of the wings and started to emit small but powerful flames out of each of them. This greatly slowed the velocity of the starship, and the root beer pub that they were searching for had just came into view, even though it was surrounded by the black ground that was all of the land on Zenith Four. This was why the planet appeared a gray-black shade. Every adventurer worth the fur on his back knew this about Zenith Four. But anyway, the pub was easily in view, and Aphelion was already slow enough to land in the hangar in front of it. They slowly made their way through the atmosphere of the planet. Until the pub was five hundred cubits below the ship. At that point, Ratchet pulled up on the steering wheel to make the ship level out. Once the ship was completely horizontal, Ratchet pulled the wheel to the left, and down a little bit to create a motion of what would have been ending up as a downward helix to the left if Ratchet would have not started out straight again, and continued down to the surface. Thirty seconds after this, they were just 20 cubits from the hangar door, and the skilled Lombax pilot was pulling into the hangar at about 30 cps (cubits per second), and then did a full U-turn, which slowed the speed rapidly to 5 cps. Then, he set the ship down using the help of the boosters beneath the ship's fuselage, and released the Space-Savs system. He had done the whole thing in two and a half minutes. It was a beautiful performance of skill and coordination with the ship. But Ratchet didn't seem to care. He was more focused on the fact that Talwyn was safe.

"Wow," Talwyn said. "That was amazing."

"What?" Ratchet asked. "Oh, the landing? Oh, that was no big deal. I just have done landings with ships ever since my first one when I first got off that old rock Veldin ten years ago, and have been practicing ever since, even though all I'd really been doing was landing sloppily on planets until I finally got better."

"Ahem," Aphelion said.

"Oh, yeah," Ratchet said, putting his elbow on the ship. "I also had a little help from my ship's awesome functions and boosters."

By the time Ratchet had finished talking about his history of landings on other planets, the other ship that contained everybody else flew in at a much slower rate than Ratchet had with Aphelion. But when it landed, Ratchet walked over to help Justin get out of the ship, but, when he got over there, he noticed that Justin had just jumped out of the ship. He looked up and smiled. _They grow up too fast. _Ratchet thought to himself.

The inside of the pub was just as full of hoverbike gear, crude posters, and bartenders as a real pub, but there were a few young Cazars sitting at bars getting a glass of root beer. As soon as Ratchet saw six barstools together at one counter, he started walking over to them. But, as he passed one of the Sledge tables, someone, in a very familiar Lombaxian voice, said, "Brother Ratchet!"

Ratchet looked over and saw that it was his brother, Nikone. He suddenly was overcome with disbelief and happiness. "Nikone!" He said back.

"How's the old ship holdin' together?" Nikone asked.

"Great," Ratchet replied. "I brought it here today."

"Who's yer lady friend?"

"My name is Talwyn Apogee." She said. "Ratchet lives with me now at the Nundac Asteroid Ring."

"Wait a sec," Nikone said. "Did you say _Apogee_?"

"Yes."

"As in _Max Apogee_?"

"You know him?" Talwyn said, in disbelief.

"He came to Planet Muggon one day. He was sayin' somthin' about how he was looking for something that the 'Space Pirates' took. Said it was real important that he found it, so he could return to the Asteroid Ring to see his daughter again."

Talwyn pulled out the picture of her as a child and her father holding the pyramid-shaped object that Ratchet and Her had uncovered years ago. "Would this be it?" She asked, holding up the old photo for the Lombax to see.

Nikone looked at the picture, and said, "Yeah, that's it."

"Well, it's recovered now," Ratchet said. "We stole it from the Space Pirates a few years ago. It's all taken care of."

"Glad to hear it," Nikone replied. "You wanna join me in a game of Sledge? Space-Savs stock has gone through the roof, so I'm willing to gamble a few bolts."

"In a minute," Ratchet said. "We're gonna go get settled in to this place, maybe have a special glass, and then me and Talwyn can come back and play a few hands."

"Great. I'll see in a few, Brother Ratchet."

Ratchet, Talwyn, Justin, Clank, Cronk, and Zephyr all got onto a stool around the counter. The bartender was a six foot three inch Cazar with a patch over his right eye. He looked up, and slightly smiled.

"Welcome to the Zenith Four Root Beer Pub." He said. "What can I get you all for today?"

"I'll have…" Ratchet said as he examined the chart with the different types of root beer on it. "How about the Ultra? Oh… with the works."

"I'll have the light," Justin said.

Cronk and Zephyr both ordered the same thing; a 1960 style mild with extra ice.

"Nothing for me," Clank said. "It will crash my systems, and they take forever to reboot."

Talwyn however, was still looking at one particular style of drink, up in the bottom-right corner, in fine print, Ratchet struggled to read it, but he knew that female Markazians all had superior sight that even passed that of a full grown male Lombax. However, he could make out the price of the drink, 30 bolts. If Talwyn was going to play Sledge with the five thousand bolt buy in, then she was going to have to save her money. But, apparently, she had brought extra, because she slapped down three ten bolt pieces, and said, "I'll have the 'Oh, My Goodness.'"

Everyone in the bar heard that, and they started to stare at Talwyn.

"That is one tough Markazian," Someone commented.

A Cazar at the end of the bar whispered the surprising news into the ear of someone at a Sledge table. He sat up straight, and told his friends at the table. They told the people at other tables, and, pretty soon, it got all around the pub. Everyone at the bars, the tables, and anywhere else possible in the pub stared unblinkingly at Talwyn. Even the bartender was almost gaping at her. But, an order was an order.

""Yes, ma'am." He said as he went to a tap that read 'DANGER'. He has blocking the view of everyone as he added the special unknown ingredients to the drink. Then, he turned. In his hand was a small glass that he was holding with his tall finger and thumb as if it were a bomb that was set to explode. He put it down on the counter, and then made a face as if the glass would corrode through the counter then and there. Everyone got up out of their seats in a mad scramble. There were sounds of shattering glasses, spilling root beer, the dropping of poker chips, and the gasps of everyone who started to race towards her. They all lined up around Talwyn, trying to get a good look at the glass. Ratchet didn't understand. It looked like an ordinary glass of root beer to him, but it was much more. Talwyn picked up the glass, eyed it suspiciously, and gulped it down in half a swallow.

Talwyn's expression changed to an awful grimace almost instantly. She looked like she was going to explode. She dropped the glass, and it shattered into thousands of pieces, and she dropped to the floor. She began to cough, and then, she threw up. After that it was pretty much over. Ratchet got up out of the stool, and ran over to her.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Talwyn choked a little more before saying, "Whoa. You would not believe how awful that was."

Ratchet had to see for himself. He ordered one, and tasted it. It was sort of hot, a melting sort of BA-BOOM! ZAP taste.

"This is weird," Ratchet said.

"What?" Talwyn replied as she got up off the floor.

"I can recall you bein' able to hold yer liquor," Ratchet continued. "But you just can't hold a hot soft drink."

Most of the pub-goers just laughed and went back to their games and drinks, but a few tried the 'Oh, my Goodness' on dares from their friends. Ratchet and Talwyn ignored them and started toward the Sledge table at which Nikone was sitting, but the face they met wasn't the Nikone that they had met when they had first walked into the bar. Now it was a Nikone that was both concerned and amazed.

"How was it?" He asked, wanting to know.

"Sort of burning and hot," Ratchet answered. "Tal doesn't like it."

"It's too darned hot." She said grimacing.

Nikone chuckled. "Well, I hope you weren't too sick to attempt to beat me at the one thing that I do best."

Talwyn snorted. "No way that'll happen. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna give up a chance to win an opponents' hard earned bolts."

"You got guts, Markazian," He said challengingly. "Let's play."

"Alright," The dealer said to Ratchet, Talwyn, and Nikone. "As all three of you know, the game is No-Limit Sledge. You have each deposited a five thousand bolt buy in, and with a re-buy of ten thousand bolts. The winner of the game will receive the jackpot of fifteen thousand bolts. Ladies and gentlemen, please wager your before-game bets, and enjoy the game."

Nikone put in his sure-win bolts into the side-pot first. He put in a stack of twenty-five bolt pieces into the center.

"Bet," The dealer said. "Two hundred."

Talwyn was a little more confident. She added a stack of fifties to the pot, and her stack was slightly larger.

"Bet, five hundred."

Ratchet was unsure of what he would do and why, because he knew that he would be ultimately defeated by either Talwyn, or Nikone. So, he decided to bet smaller. He simply put in a stack of tens the size of Talwyn's into the pot.

"Bet, one hundred. The game begins."

As the panels were being passed out, Ratchet could almost feel that ace beneath one of his four cards that he would receive. But, he tried to hide the fact of his knowing. But when the first card got to him, he slyly looked at it by lifting up the top a little bit. A jack. Not bad. But there was still a king in there. The next card came. Ratchet looked at this one. It was another jack. Ratchet began to think. _ If I can get a third ten, I could have a good shot at winning this pot. _To be sure, Ratchet studied the faces of his opponents like a bat eyeing his prey. But, unfortunately, both Talwyn and Nikone had amazing poker faces, and he just couldn't read them, much less tell what the values of their cards were. But, Ratchet decided to play off of his own cards. The next panel came along. It was the third jack. Ratchet began to get excited, and he must have shown it a little, because Talwyn looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she picked up the third panel to see. _Not good, _Ratchet thought to himself. _I really hope that she hasn't guessed that I have jacks._ But, he couldn't know. And, the fourth and final panel had come around. Ratchet eyed it the final card, and was amazed at what he saw. It was the last jack in the deck. Ratchet had the punishing four of a kind. He was confident now. He had the third best possible hand. Just behind four Queens, and that was behind four Kings. But, he had a sneaky feeling about Talwyn or Nikone having one of those. Ratchet didn't know what to do. Should he risk it, and bet big? If he did that, he'd either get the before bets, and win the hand after everyone folded, or everyone would call, and he'd win the jackpot. But, then again, if one of his opponents had four Queens or Kings, he would probably lose almost all of his money. And that wouldn't be good. But, it was just a game, and with four jacks in the hole, he decided that he had the best hand on the table, and he was willing to risk it.

"The panels have been distributed," Said the dealer. "It is time to bet. Miss Apogee, you have the liberty of betting first."

Talwyn thought for a moment. She had four Kings in the hole. The best possible hand. But, after seeing Ratchet's little flinch after the third card was distributed, she thought that he also had a good hand, but no one else on the table could have this hand, so she had surely won. She felt like there was a little fiesta going on in her head. But she didn't show any sign of giving the value of the holo-panels away until the dealer said it was time to. She decided to bet a little smaller, and see where that would lead her. She put in a stack of chips, and sat back to see if she would get a reaction.

"Bet," The dealer said as Nikone stared at his panels not knowing what to do with them. "One thousand."

Nikone continued to gaze at the cards. He had four tens, and that was a good hand. But, he almost knew Talwyn and how she played. He was guessing that she was bluffing, or, she was trying to get a reaction from him and his brother by scaring them by betting one-fifth of her stack. Nikone thought that she was pulling something a little more though, so that was what he decided to think. He responded to the bet with a raise by another one thousand.

"Raise," The dealer said. "Two thousand." Ratchet was not looking at them, but he was thinking about his jacks in the hole. That could be the winning hand, and he knew it. But, Talwyn did bet a little smaller than Ratchet had previously presumed that she would. And, for the first time that Ratchet could remember, Talwyn had not only been called, but raised. Ratchet had never had the guts to do that. Ratchet decided that he still had the best hand, and put in thirty on hundred bolt pieces.

"Re-raise, Three thousand," The dealer added almost immediately after he had pointed out the raise from Nikone. Ratchet had given a quick re-raise, and that meant that he was confident. And Nikone actually had the guts to raise her in the first place. And knowing that she had the best possible hand, she decided that it was time to stop playing around, and start playing her cards like they were meant to. She pushed in all of her chips, and smartly responded, "All in."

"Re-raise," the dealer said. "Three thousand, five hundred. All in." Nikone wasn't sure about his cards anymore, but, he still had a little confidence, and that was good enough for him. He put in his remaining bolts.

"Call," The dealer said. "All in." Now ratchet was serious. He knew that both Talwyn and Nikone had good hands, maybe even better. But, Ratchet was going to be just like he was during last stand fights that he had been in with his Judicator. He wasn't going down without a fight. He put in all the rest of his chips. This meant that all of the chips were already in the pot, and the winner of the hand would be the winner of the pot, and the whole game.

"Miss Apogee," the dealer said in reply to the chip exchange. "You have been called. Mister Nikone, show down please." The person to the right of the person who was dealt the first card was always the first person to show their hand. Nikone smiled as he showed the tens, and the dealer reacted quickly.

"Four tens for Mister Nikone." The dealer said as he gathered up the cards and laid them out for everyone to see. "Mister Ratchet…"

Ratchet also smiled, happy that he had finally beaten someone that was truly better than himself, and showed the jacks with more confidence than Nikone would ever give in any Sledge game after that.

"Four jacks for Mister Ratchet." The dealer said. He did the same thing with Ratchet's cards as he had with Nikone's. He laid them out on the green felt of the table for the players and witnesses to see. "Miss Apogee, your cards…"

Talwyn's expression never changed from a poker face. She carefully picked up the four holo-panels, laid them out in front of her on the table, directly behind the five stacks required to keep the bolts from toppling, and carefully… slowly… mysteriously… overturned her cards. To reveal, to the opponents shock, and the witnesses amazement, the four kings. The dealer could only gape at the fact that he had dealt those cards to her. But, after a few seconds, he finally mustered the strength needed to pick up the cards, lay them out, and say, "F-f-four k-kings. T-the R-Royal Quartet. T-the high h-hand."

Everyone instantly began to clap and cheer.

"Incredible!" Someone said. "She just chugged down a highly dangerous 'Oh, My Goodness' drink, and had the skill to beat the pub champion."

After everyone cleared up from wanting to congratulate Talwyn on her win, Ratchet noticed Justin sitting at the counter that they had been sitting at. He was looking at the counter, rather than upright. And he wasn't perky like he was about ninety-five percent of the time. But instead, his little ears and tail were dropping down farther than Ratchet's did when he had been seriously injured in battle. But, Justin wasn't in pain or in need of a medical center treatment; he was simply depressed over something that Ratchet simply did not understand. But he couldn't stand to see his nephew so down like this, and he walked over to the stool and sat down next to him.

"Are you alright?" Ratchet asked him after he sat down. Justin turned his little puppy-dog eyes onto Ratchet and said, "I'm just a helpless little robot's play thing."

"No," Ratchet said in reply. "You aren't. You're very smart, and if I weren't around to help you, you'd probably had broken free of Vorselon's clutches."

"You don't understand," He said back. "When the troops came for me, I was the only one in the station. In the Nundac Asteroid Ring, in fact. When they came in, I just tried to outrun them, but they were just too fast. They threw me in a cage that was sitting over a cargo drop hatch. They threatened to open it if I didn't stay quiet. Eventually, I was taken out of the small ship and they put my cage on Uralian Talcstone. I was helpless, and couldn't defend myself."

Ratchet felt great guilt. He had left his only relative at the station alone. That just put him in a prime position to be kidnapped. Ratchet decided to put it off until later, because right now, he had something else to do. Something important. Ratchet walked back over to the Sledge table at which Nikone was sitting at. He sat down at the table, and Nikone looked up.

"Hey, Ratchet," He said. "How's it going?"

"Yer not mad are ya?" Ratchet said. "Talwyn's just got the perfect poker face."

"No, not at all. But, is there a reason you came?"

"Yeah. Do ya still own that pawn shop on Planet Muggon?"

Nikone looked at Ratchet. He knew exactly what he was talking about. He smiled at the fact that Ratchet had finally matured since they were kits back on Veldin. And he was happy for him. After all, she was a nice Markazian.

"I'm way ahead o' ya, Brother," He said with a small grin on his face. "How's a raritanium mount sound?"

"She's always loved raritanium."


	11. Realization

Realization 

Ratchet was in his room at the cabana once again. He was sitting on his and Talwyn's bed, and its covers were still strewn about from the horror movie incident late last night. And as a matter of the present, it was late in this night too. It was 10:32 to be exact. No one else was in bed, in fact, everyone was downstairs doing something that was a little noisy, but not so enough to disturb the Lombax from his thoughts. His thoughts were ones of great guilt and angst. He had single handedly left his own nephew to fend for himself with nothing more to work with than his own coordination and wits. And when you're a one year old Lombax, that was a pretty powerless thing to be. Ratchet sat out on the bed until he got hot. After this, he simply solved the problem by walking out onto the balcony. He had been holding his Omniwrench the whole time. He looked at the shine that still lingered from the day he bought it. But, he also noticed the scuffs. Some hero he was. He threw the tool toward the horizon, but he knew it wouldn't get far. Below him was the warm, tropical water of Planet Pokitaru, and rocks positioned on the edge of the cabana, as to not let waves crash into the side of the building. He watched as the tool cascaded down fifteen cubits to the surface of the ocean. It made a small splash, and was gone instantly. Ratchet sighed. Goodbye.

There was a breeze that allowed Ratchet to relax a little bit. It ruffled his fur a little bit, and Ratchet came close to purring, but he stopped himself. Instead, he simply allowed the gusts of wind weave in and out of the hairs on his body. The lombax was topless, but was still covered by his jeans from the thighs down. The wind was quite the sensation, and decided to let himself stretch. Mmmm…

A few minutes later, Talwyn entered the room. The sound of her walking in snapped Ratchet out of his trance with the wind, and Ratchet once again felt the pain of his angst. Not that it was her fault, though.

"Hey, Ratchet," She said. "There's a live hoverbike holo-vision tournament going on downstairs. Don't you wanna watch it?"

Ratchet was excited for a few seconds, but his guilt got the better of him. "No," He replied. "I don't."

This shocked Talwyn. Ratchet loved hoverbikes. He had his own at a garage on another planet, and he used to race it all the time. Nowadays, since they came out with the game, he's been playing that a lot. And, now that there just so happened to be a live hoverbike race that was going on the final hotel bill as Pay-Per-View, he was saying no. She put her hand on her hip, and said, "Okay, what's going on?"

Ratchet tried to act like there was no problem, so Talwyn wouldn't worry. "No," He said. "I just… well… it's just that… I… oh, I give up. Talwyn, I just can't believe that I left my nephew at the space station alone as bait in clear water for Vorselon's troops. I… I just can't believe it."

Ratchet put his head down on the railing around the edge of the square balcony, and he silently started to sob. He was a little embarrassed, however. Ratchet instantly thought that the two hundred fifty-thousand bolts he had spent on a bonding ring were all wasted. Some hero he was.

"Stop it," Talwyn said, surprised at the Lombax's pathetic act. "You're the hero of the galaxy, check that, the OMNIVERSE. And here you sit, crying over something that never happened? The death of someone is inevitable. And, even if that did happen, you would kill Vorselon more inhumanely than with that lousy RYNO that you keep packed in your manifestor."

"Well," Ratchet said. "I'm not worried about what would have happened, I guess. It's that I'm worried about Justin being worried."

"Well," Talwyn said in return. "He is not watching a tournament of the sport he loves the most. He's up in his room. He says he wants to be alone. And Ratchet, no one that was important to us died. And you know, there's gonna be other bad guys out there, and there's gonna be other times when you think you can't beat him. But you can. Because there's always someone who's going to be by your side the whole time. And that someone and you are gonna make sure that there will be no deaths on your watch. You'll make sure that the villain will be stopped. And, the worst case scenario is that I'm wrong, and you beat the life right out of him."

Ratchet looked up from the railing, and his eyes once again met the sky. Talwyn was absolutely right. And even if someone did die, he would still always have the rest of his friends and family. Ratchet turned to her and said, "Yer right Tal. Yer always right." With that, Ratchet climbed up onto the railing. Talwyn stepped back. What would happen? But, before she could guess, Ratchet leaped off, into the air, and started falling toward the waves of the ocean. Talwyn ran toward the railing, and grabbed the edge to keep from falling off. She saw Ratchet in a diving position as he plummeted further toward the water. Eventually, He hit the water, and created a small splash. Talwyn began to walk out of the room and down the stairs. _That crazy Lombax._ She thought.

Ratchet had not gone crazy. He had simply gone to retrieve his once abandoned Omniwrench. As he fell through the air, he once again felt the breeze tugging him to the right a little bit. He enjoyed the feeling once again through his now happy body. But it died instantly when he hit the water, but it wasn't a burden. In fact, it was the lovely feeling of his fur silently sashaying through the water. He was almost immediately ten feet under, and he was one happy Lombax. With his breath held, (he had on no armor, so therefore, he had no O2 mask on) he searched the area of the sand below him until he saw the faint gleam of titanium reflect off the distant sun above it. Ratchet swam down further to get to it, and he began to lightly dust away the sand that it was buried in. Sure enough, he had soon uncovered the handle of the wrench. Ratchet lightly grinned, wrapped his fingers around the wet grip that was attached to the handle, once again feeling the elasticity and squishiness between his fingers, he gave a good yank. The tool came free. Sending many particles of tiny rock along with it. They slowly came down on top of Ratchet's skin beneath his fur. It slightly tickled and tingled his body. Ratchet smiled as he held the Omniwrench Millennium 12k above his head. He then realized that his air in his lungs was running low. He began to swim toward the surface. He could see the waves thirty feet above him. He quickly kicked his feet alternating. He was back. And it felt good.

Ratchet sat on the sand of the beach that surrounded the front side of the cabana, wet, but content. His legs were in an upside down V position, with his arms crossed over them. His elbows were just laying on the top of his knees, and his Omniwrench was clenched between his right fist, which was really on the left side of his body. It was as wet as Ratchet, and yet even though the water that could easily rust the titanium over time, it added a nice gleam to the already shining metal tool. Ratchet's eyes were closed, and he was slightly looking to the sky with his muzzle in the air. He could smell the water on him, and the water that surrounded him for millions of square kilocubits. It was all peaceful. There were no boats or transport hovercrafts to disturb the depths, only the wind to slightly churn it. The smells filled the nostrils of the Lombax, who was more complacent than any other Cazar, Fongoid, or Markazian for that matter in the Omniverse. But, he heard footsteps behind him, and the smell of Talwyn's skin, being spicy and exotic like all Markazian's skin, began to linger around his nose. He slightly chuckled, and said, "Good evening, Miss Apogee."

"Hello, Ratchet," She said in return. "And yes, it is."

She sat next to him on the sand, and Ratchet turned his head. She was not dressed in her armor. In fact, she was dressed in a casual outfit that Ratchet had never seen before. It consisted of a green top, and to Ratchet's surprise, jeans that were as dark blue as Ratchet's were when he bought them on Kerwan. Ratchet eyed it, and he must have been caught, because Talwyn said, "What? I hope you didn't expect me to wear the stuffy armor the _whole _time we were here. Besides, I think I prefer this outfit."

They both sat, wondering which one would speak next. They both decided who would go first at the exact same time.

Ratchet said, "I'm sorry I was such a…"

At the same time as Talwyn said, "You had a right to be…"

"You go first," Talwyn said.

"I'm sorry I was such a jerk. To you… to myself… to Justin… to everyone. It was a real stupid reason to feel angst. There was no chance of it happening in the first place. There wasn't any real danger."

Talwyn didn't reply. She simply put her head on top of Ratchet's shoulder, and began to stroke the fur on his back. Ratchet stretched. He loved to have his fur petted. It was a nice feeling that slightly scratched his skin. He smiled again.

They still sat, staring into the deep orange sunset sky as the natural causes of the sun took play. Being on Pokitaru however, it took a relatively longer time for the sun to go down over the horizon. The water was almost perfectly teal. Ratchet looked over. Talwyn was just taking a large breath as to smell the air around her. Ratchet then remembered all of the things that she had done for him in the past. She had pretty much rescued him from the Demensionator several times, done the deed of saving when he was backed up by full grown cragmites, and of course, saved his tail when he was flailing through space with Justin and Clank. Those were things that she had done that no one really looked back on. Ratchet had to look back now. After all, it was now or never.

"Thank you," Ratchet said.

"For what?" Talwyn replied in return.

"For everything. I mean, you saved me from the Demensionator, helped defeat Tachyon and the cragmites, and most of all, space is not the place you want to fall into. After all, it's all my fault that they were never looked back on." Talwyn didn't really react. Well, not the way Ratchet was _hoping,_ but she kissed him lightly on the side of his muzzle. Ratchet felt a slight bolt of static electricity go through his fur. Ratchet slightly slid down on the sand, almost stunned, but he _really _didn't want to deny what just happened a few seconds ago. He felt something square in the back pocket of his jeans. _Oh, my God! _He remembered. _The ring!_ Ratchet instantly pulled the leather box out of the pants, and opened it. Sure enough, there it was, as gleaming as ever. Ratchet just remembered who he was sitting in front of. He turned, opened his mouth to speak, but before anything got out, Talwyn put a hand up, silencing him. Then she said, "Do you really think that you have to ask?" Then she leaned over, and kissed him. Ratchet's eyes jolted open, surprised at the fact that it had all happened so fast. He slightly held them open for a few seconds, and then once he realized what was happening, he finally closed them, cherishing the moment as the world around him vanished.


	12. Justin's First Tool

Justin's First Tool

Ratchet walked into the cabana with Talwyn, and Ratchet almost wanted to react to the sudden change in environment. He looked into the living room and saw that the hoverbike race was no longer on the Holo-vision. Instead, Cronk and Zephyr were still in there watching an old film that was apparently as old as the war bots themselves were. They were laughing away at it. They really didn't notice them until Talwyn walked over and snapped them back into the real world.

"Miss Talwyn," Cronk said. "We're sorry. We were just watchin' an old Holo-film. It's pretty hilarious. Anyway, what's new with you?"

Talwyn smiled as she remembered that they didn't know. She looked at Ratchet, and he slightly nodded as he blushed unnoticeably under his fur. She held up her hand to let them see the ring. The raritanium beautifully shined in the luminous light of the Holo set. Both the 'bots simply stared in awe, and then realized what had happened, and then both began to lightly smile. Ratchet chuckled under his breath, and began to blush even redder. He walked over to Talwyn and put her arm around her. Cronk began to laugh and said, "To think that I was going to tell our little girl that it was about time that she was gonna have to find a mate. Too late, I guess." Everyone laughed, and Ratchet and Talwyn plopped onto the couch to watch the movie with the old robots. They were right, it was pretty funny. But, usually the couple was too focused on one another to care. They only turned to watch when Cronk or Zephyr pointed out that the upcoming part of the holo-film was a 'real laugh.' And it usually was, due to the fact that they were seeing this movie for the umpteenth time. Ratchet basically kept doing that 'arm thing' almost all the duration of the film. Talwyn just kept her head lying against Ratchet's shoulder. He enjoyed the feeling of her head against his arm, and he wanted to make it last. Sadly, though, she yawned and said, "I'm going to bed." Ratchet felt almost heartbroken, but, that was followed by a quick wink, which renewed Ratchet's confidence. After all, she was unpredictable.

Ratchet finished the movie with Cronk and Zephyr, and when it ended, they went to bed as well. Ratchet sat in the room which was now rather dark, but a small glimpse of the sun still lingered over the horizon, allowing for there to still be light throughout the room. Ratchet began to think about what all had happened in the last forty eight hours. He had got one heck of a massage from a nice Cazar, went to a root beer pub where he had a reunion with his brother from Planet Veldin. Also, he had mated with the love of his life finally. He was satiated with this little fact. In fact, he was practically squeeing with joy. He was excited to get to bed. In fact, he didn't want to keep Talwyn waiting any longer. He started toward the bedroom upstairs, when he heard a familiar sobbing sound from a certain little Lombax upstairs. He walked up to the second level and turned into Justin's room. Sure enough, there he was, crying into the pillow. Ratchet looked down at his feet before walking in and sitting down on the bed. The Lombax ceased crying for a long enough time to utter, "Hey, Uncle Ratchet," from a breaking tone of voice. After this, he went right back to sobbing. Ratchet put a hand over Justin and tried to calm him by saying, "Don't beat yourself up. After all, you that I would never let a goon like Vorselon do anything that came anywhere close to hurting you. And, you know, you aren't helpless." Ratchet slowly reached for his manifestor.

"Yes, I am," He answered as Ratchet scrolled through the items bar moving to the bottom. "I have nothing to protect myself. I'm unarmed."

"Not anymore." Ratchet manifested a brand new, unused, and fresh out of the box, Omniwrench Millennium 12K. Justin stared in awe at the fact that his Uncle was giving him his first weapon. "No way," He said. "An Omniwrench? Just like you use!"

"Yeah," Ratchet said. "If you want, when we get back to the station, I'll teach ya how ta use it."

"Great. I can't wait."

Ratchet entered the room to find Talwyn lying in the well-made bed. She looked over to see him, and smiled. It was the heart-warming smile that any Lombax would expect from his mate (even if that mate was a Markazian). Ratchet walked over, pulled up the covers, and got beneath them before they could fall back down. There were noises coming from the other room below them, which was Justin's room. It sounded like he was practicing swinging his wrench. Talwyn rolled her eyes and said, "I take it that you gave him our little gift, hmm?" Ratchet looked over and replied, "Yeah. You should have seen his face. He was just too cute." Talwyn drew closer. "You're a good person." She leaned in and kissed him. Without a doubt, Ratchet returned the favor, only adding to the romance of it.

"You know, Ratchet," Talwyn said. "We do have to check out of this place tomorrow." Ratchet only chuckled and said, "Yeah, but they didn't say when. _Or _how we got there. So, we pretty much have all night."

They decided to watch a little late night Holo-vision. There were a few old comedies on that they both got more than a kick out of, not to mention some of the other things they may have found while surfing around, but all in all, it was all a little mild for them. They wanted something good. Eventually, they found a good action film. But, it proved to be more than an action film. It was a Secret Agent Clank film. Ratchet was a little embarrassed about the part that he played in all of the films. However, Talwyn always found a way to make it funny.

"You look so cute as the butler," She said with a smirk on her face.

"Ha ha," Ratchet said in return. "You're a comic _genius._"

"How did you land a job on that series?" Ratchet looked at her. "Well, besides being famous, you're Clank's best friend, and, well, to be frank, you're really awesome."

"Well," Ratchet said as if to activate a wavy flashback effect. "We had just defeated Chairman Drek on our first adventure, Clank broke his arm. We had to take him to the emergency Med Center. They said that his arm was severely damaged, and that it would take a lot o' doctors to fix properly. They asked me to help. They told me to feed liquid nanotech into his arm to kill the pain. The news crew came in as I was doing that, and they must have called the Producers from Clank's old show or somethin' like that for some reason. They got there about, like, ten minutes later. They said that they couldn't believe that the star of their show was injured. But, by then, the doctors had managed to replace all of the broken parts, and they told me that if I didn't stop giving him nanotech, he'd die of health overload."

"Health overload?" Talwyn asked. "I have never heard of anything like that before."

"You probably haven't," Ratchet continued. "It's a weird thing that happens when you take in too much nanotech at one time. Anyways, as I was saying, the producers said that their show was going down the drain, and the company was going bankrupt. They were practically on their hands and knees begging Clank to come back and do the show again. Clank hesitated, but he said yes. They even asked me to be in it because I 'saved an intergalactic hero.' I had to agree. I mean trillions of people across the Omniverse."

Ratchet and Talwyn soon fell asleep during an episode that was untimely boring due to the fact that there was no Ratchet in it ("Don't you hate it when life does that to you?" Ratchet said). Ratchet and Talwyn somehow both dreamt the same thing. They were seeing every little thing that happened in the last three days. They saw the pub, the reunion with Aphelion, everything. The only difference was that they were witnessing everything in second-person. Each of them liked what they saw the whole time, and they were egging on their past selves to do the things that happened before. Almost all those demands were met (they knew they would be. They just lived them seventy two hours ago to now.)


	13. Heading Home

Heading Home

Ratchet awoke once more to a life without an alarm clock. He preferred this life, as it was less noisy and annoying. But, it would be nice to get back to the Nundac Asteroid Ring, or more specifically, the Apogee Space Station. Yet, he was almost reluctant to leave. He loved Planet Pokitaru. It was the vacation spot of any species in the galaxy if they were worth what they were born for. But, it was irrelevant of the fact of whether or not he was leaving the beautiful ocean covered space rock. Everyone else couldn't wait to arrive through the station's artificial air, gravity, and atmosphere. He needed to fit in with everyone else.

He got up, but not before checking the old non-alarm digital clock hanging from the wall. 8:17. That was a pretty decent time to wake up, reach over the edge of the mattress, and turn off the lobby communication device that would give a wakeup call to any and all the master suites on all of the islands in all of the cabanas. He almost fell groggily from the edge of the bed as he got out putting on his bunny slippers. He was almost as embarrassed about having these as he was about having those specialized rocket ship underpants. But, he didn't care. He merely walked around to the other side of the bed to attempt to wake Talwyn. He gave a slight push on her abdomen, yet stayed quiet. She stirred for about a few seconds, and then dozed off again. Ratchet immediately gave up. There wasn't anything in the world that he could think of that could possibly wake her when she was tired. After all, Ratchet did always wake up about two hours before she did. He walked across the room, in no hurry to get showered, but, he felt as if he wanted to get a head start on the day today. He walked into the bathroom, which was actually quite large for what it was supposed to be. The hydroshower was almost as large as the bathroom in Ratchet's room back at the station. It looked like it had four jets that would drench him and spray him with cleaning liquid as they moved up and down. Ratchet thought this because there were small slits in the wall where it looked like the nozzle would move vertically. As he stepped in, he realized that there was no switch to activate the shower's jets. But, the device proved that it didn't need one. It automatically shot out the water as he stepped in. Sort of like the one at the station, only he had to turn it on verbally. This was more technologically advanced than the station. And Ratchet sort of enjoyed it.

He simply stood there as he was first pelted with the usual constant spray of cleansing water that moved from the top of his body to his feet. It felt nice to have him being comfortably sprayed by water. Next came the cleaning liquid. Ratchet didn't know what it was, but it sure smelled nice. Once again, it never penetrated his tightly shut eyes. Instead, it sprayed him in the same manner as the water did when it was coming out of the business end of the nozzle. It moved down for about seven seconds, and then up for the same amount of time. He was covered in white, sweet smelling foam that he could feel cleaning deep into his fur. Then, the water came again to rinse off all of the soap and cleanser that was now covering every square centicubit of Ratchet's body. In almost a single spray of the water, the foam disappeared as though it were never there, and Ratchet was just getting his body ready for soaping all over again. It was amazing how quick the soap was gone, and once Ratchet's whole head was relieved of it, he opened his eyes to witness exactly how fast it was ridding his body of it as if it were an unwanted pest. Ratchet was bewildered as well. Once all the soap was gone, it all went into the unstopped drain, and Ratchet prepped himself for the airblast system. The shower did something that Ratchet had never seen before. Some of the tiles that surrounded him on the shower walls jutted out about an inch, and then started moving up through open cracks in the molding together of the tiles. After they were completely out of the way of the now open square that had the same area as the tile, a small little vent appeared in the place of the hole that was also square and had the same area. It did this four different times around him so that he would be dries on all four sides as he was wetted, soaped, and rinsed. Ratchet was about to think that it was impossible to deliver enough thrust of wind and air to dry his entire body. But, he ended up eating his own words. The vents let loose a powerful blow of wind that would have pinned Ratchet to the wall if he weren't balanced by the stopping power of the other ones. He was dry within thirty seconds of the beginning of the blast. He opened his eyes to find himself so dry that he didn't need an extra towel, and he wouldn't even have to fluff it. It was a pretty neat hydroshower, overall.

He exited the shower, and a little machine that stood next to the sink spit out Ratchet's long sleeve gray shirt and a pair of his favorite jeans. After this it let out a small pair of underwear. Ratchet looked at it and found that it had rocket ships on it. He almost didn't have to look. He knew what was coming. He didn't groan this time; instead he just put everything on. It all felt comfortable, as it must have gone through a wash on the way from the dresser to the machine. But whatever had happened, he was proud of the fact that he had lived here. He walked out of the bathroom with a slight smile on his face. But that smile faded as he saw that Talwyn was still out cold in the bed. In fact, while he was in the bathroom, he almost could tell that she had snored.

"This is just ridiculous," Ratchet said. "How on Pokitaru can you sleep for that long?!" But, of course, he might as well have been talking to a corpse. She wasn't getting up. But Ratchet was more than prepared for that. He walked over to his manifestor which rested on top of the dresser. He took it down and scrolled through his inventory until he found his old Combustor. He also went down toward the middle, finding the blank Combustor shots. Finding both the items, he quickly manifested them, and he loaded the shot. He aimed the gun in the air, braced himself for the explosion, and squeezed the trigger.

The loud shot rang out throughout the cabana, waking anyone who hadn't risen, and making everyone else pause their vidgames and look around suspiciously. It certainly did the deed of waking Talwyn, due to the fact that she was sleeping in a bed that was only a few cubits away.

"I'm up! I'm up!" She screamed as the shot rang out. She instantly hopped out of bed. And continued yelling. "Are we under ATTACK!!???"

"No," Ratchet said. "It was my Combustor. You people are too darn lazy." He started to swing it in a vertical three sixty motion in the area were the trigger was, showing that he was content of his doing. Talwyn wasn't mad thankfully, but she could agree that there were probably some other better ways to wake her up. Ratchet just shrugged his shoulders.

Everyone was down in the cabana's kitchen within five minutes. And after everyone saw that _Zephyr _was cooking, they all wanted to barf up a lung and go find a Galaxy Burger somewhere in the Korthos Sector.

"You know, Ratchet," Talwyn said. "You should really try cooking." Everyone else smiled and nodded very fast. Ratchet replied with, "No way. There's no way that's happening. All I can do is make toast." And, with that, he stuck a piece of bread into the toaster that was next to a few skillets, and pulled down the handle. A few seconds later, It popped out golden brown and appetizing. "Ta-da!" Ratchet said. Everyone else appeared to be impressed, because they were licking their lips. Ratchet made a few more pieces, one for everyone. They all devoured their piece like it was a perfectly ripe gravity well. Even Zephyr had to comment.

"This here's better than anything I've ever made," He said. Everyone just looked at him as if he were saying something new.

"Well, everyone," Ratchet said. "We've been here for our fill of vacation, so what do you say we head back to the station?" Justin shouted his agreement. "YAY!!" Everyone else agreed, but they couldn't leave without, oh, say, one more piece of Ratchet's delicious toast.

About a half hour later, they were all set for departure. They had packed their clothes and belongings, and were on their way to the transport hovercraft that was ready to take them back to the Island were they would check out of Jowai Resort, get in their ships, and head back to the Apogee Space Station. They all boarded the craft, carefully pulling their luggage up the steps of the craft. After everyone was on it, the steps withdrew, going beneath it. And within seconds of this happening, the craft was off for the lobby once again. It flew at its eighty mile an hour speed across the fresh water in the morning sun. The light was bright, so everyone put on their novelty sunglasses. This shielded their eyes from the planet's sun's dangerous rays. There was no one flying the craft, in fact, there never was. It flew on a planned course. It knew where it was all of the time, whether at the lobby, or at the island. Whenever it was at one of those locations, it would go to the other one. It was like the DreadZone planetary transport that he used in those days. Any tampering with the planned route would cause the craft to explode.

It took about five minutes to arrive at the lobby island and hop out of the craft. Ratchet told everyone to go back to the ships. He told Justin and Clank that he would be at Aphelion in a few minutes after he checked out. He walked over to the front desk in a small room. The concierge smiled at the fact that his favorite customer was back in the lobby.

"Hello, good sir," He said, with ecstasy. "Have you come back to check out?"

"You know it!" Ratchet said. "And by the way, can I rate the hotel's service?"

"But, of course," The Cazar said. "We at Jowai Resort love it when our loyal customers review our service. We are all always wanting to be told what needs to improve."

"Well, first of all, I think the temperature in the cabana could stand to be a few degrees warmer, and, I think the toasters are starting to get a little defective. It kept the bread in the slot a little too long. But, other than that, it was pretty darn great to stay here, and that wasn't just because we were staying in the Royal Suite."

"Thank you for your kind words sir. Please come back and stay here again."

Minutes later, they were just exiting the atmosphere of the beautiful Planet Pokitaru. As the planet slowly inched away from view, everyone stared at it as if they were all having a contest to see who could keep it in there range of vision for the longest period of time. Ratchet probably wouldn't have won, but he swore that he heard a small voice coming from the inside of the planet saying, "Don't go." But, to the voice's dismay, Ratchet only continued toward the distant space in front of him. There wasn't any question of where he'd rather be. He wanted to be back at Apogee Space Station in the Nundac Asteroid Ring. After all, the place was probably a mess.

It didn't take long to get close enough to the Ring where they could just go into hyperspace for a few minutes, rather than just fly Aphelion for the next four hours instead. He pushed the small button on the dashboard that activated the Super Boosters. The ship was instantly surrounded by the same little colored pixels of the hyperspace area. They almost shone on Ratchet's fur. Clank's eyes were instantly drawn to the alternating colors of the pixels. Ratchet didn't know why he would do this, but when he did, the rest of the world would just go away. Clank's reason for acting this way was because his optical sensors are drawn to areas of bright light, and that it relaxed them, so therefore he was almost asleep while it was happening. He was especially susceptible to fire, hyperspace pixels, and new light bulbs.

Only minutes later, the tube around them vanished, and the Asteroid Ring was in view. Ratchet set course for the small landing pad on the northern-most rock, realizing that Talwyn's ship was right next to his. They both landed at about the same time, and shut off their engines. They opened the hatches on their ships, and hopped out. Once again, Justin needed no help. They walked over to the teleporter cannon, and wondered who would go first. Although, the silence was broken when Justin said, "Can I go first? Please, oh, please?" No one could deny those cute little puppy dog eyes that belonged to the little Lombax kit, and he smiled as he leaped through the cannon's waiting translucent tube.

Everyone else soon followed, each tightly holding on to their luggage so that it wouldn't fall through space, as Ratchet almost had, twice. Once they were all on the rock, Ratchet just _had _to comment. "Well," He said. "It sure is great to be back."

They all walked over to the elevator that would take them up to the main hallway of the Station. As they approached it, Ratchet looked up at the big, spherical Space Station, and thought to himself how great it would be to walk through those halls once again. He thought back to when he raided the station a few years ago. Nothing had been renovated or altered since his arrival, and now, he was okay with that. Before he could notice what had happened, he was standing in the elevator, and it had already started its trip up. He was racing up the transparent tube that was held together by small strips of metal. They whizzed by very quickly and quietly. Then, almost instantly, they were surrounded by darkness. It came quickly. And it must have frightened Justin a little bit, because he could feel little hands wrapping around his stomach area. But, within seconds, they withdrew. There were little lights that were arranged into horizontal groups so close together that it looked almost as if it was just one circular line of a light. They went by as quickly and as quietly as the little straps of support metals did. This went on, lights passing and metal strips whizzing by, for about thirty more seconds. Then, he felt sudden G force as the platform slowly came to a stop. That meant that they were nearing the entrance to the hallway. They came to a direct stop, making Ratchet feel almost weightless. They all walked into the foyer. There was a little three way intersection that Ratchet also remembered from his first visit. They walked right, and then Talwyn took a small card key out of her pocket, and pressed the edge against a small pad on the wall that was next to a sealed door. The door quickly opened with a small _whoosh_ sound. Inside, Ratchet found himself once again standing in the old living room of the Apogee Station. He was finally home again. Or, at least he was at the place at which he was sheltered. His real home was his old garage back on Planet Veldin. He wondered if that dump was still standing anymore. Probably not, but he almost wished he could see it again. But, as I said, he felt as if he was home again.

Ratchet sat on the couch, smiling as if he had saved the Omniverse once again. Oh, wait, he _did _save the Omniverse once again. That thought alone was enough to make him smile wider. Things were pretty peaceful, except for Cronk and Zephyr having their usual 6:00 PM argument over something that no one really even cared about.

"I'm tellin' ya, I was a graduate of the Polaris School of Lombax Research."

"Ya durn fool! Ya don' even know the first thing that has anythin' ta do with Lombaxes. My mother was half Lombax."

"Yea, yea, sure. Ya hit me with that one…" Cronk began counting on his fingers as if doing a hard math problem. "…two adventures ago."

All Ratchet could do was just give up, claimed that neither of them knew anything about him, and rolled his eyes. When his eyes reached the other side of his sockets, he noticed that little Justin was sitting on the other end of the two-person couch with a vidgame controller tightly clutched in his fist. Ratchet looked in front of him, and saw that there was another one conveniently placed directly in front of him. And, he saw that the hoverbike game was at its loading screen. Ratchet gave a small chuckle, and said, "You are so totally ON."

It was an uneventful race, mainly because no one picked up any weapons that were actually useful enough to use. Oh, sure there were a few missile launchers, and an electroshock zapper here and there and maybe a machine gun in there somewhere, but other than that, there was nothing. The only thing that was worth gaping for was the standings of the race. Ratchet and Justin had TIED. That's right, TIED. They each had the same amount of minutes, seconds, and milliseconds in their elapsed time. Everyone who was watching not only stared open-mouthed at the place board, but they actually made a small coarse noise coming from the very back of their throats.

"Wow," Ratchet said as he watched the replay. The game was right. He couldn't see a microcubit of distance between the front of his hoverbike and the front of Justin's hoverbike. They had no choice but to call it a draw. They both sighed unhappily, almost wishing they could go back in time to play it again, only with more aggression.

Talwyn sat down next to Ratchet and said, "Hey, it's okay. I mean, it was just a vidgame. It's not like it was the Polaris Championship of Hoverbike Racing."

"Yer right, Tal," Ratchet said, smiling once again. "Hey, Justin."

"Yeah?" The kit replied.

"How'd you like it if I taught you how to use that new Omniwrench?"

The kit immediately sprang up out of his seat on the couch and exclaimed, "Really?! We could do that NOW?!"

"Oh, sure," Ratchet said. "In fact I thing that going just outside would be a perfect setting."

"Oh, boy!!"

"C'mon!! Let's do this!!"

Ratchet stood at the bottom of the stairs, patiently waiting for Justin to hurry up and grab his Wrench. He wondered what he was going to teach him, and what he was going to keep for himself. _Maybe I could teach him the Hyper-Strike. Yeah, that's not too hard to do. After all, all yer doin' is slammin' the head into the dust. 'S pretty darned powerful too. I remember I took out a few doctors at Medical Outpost Omega with that move in one swing. Yeah, I guess I'll teach him that. And _of course_ I have to teach him how to swing the wrench in general. And, I should probably find a winch crank and teach him to turn it. I should probably show him how to slide down a cable with it. Now, the Comet-Strike. _That's_ a different story altogether. That's pretty hard, but it delivers one heck of a punch. Well, I'll think about it, I guess. _

The kit came running down the stairs with the wrench tightly grasped in his small fist, almost too big for him.

"Ready!" He said.

"Cool."

They decided to have the lessons right outside of the station. Ratchet was already busy teaching Justin how to swing the wrench three times, remembering to save your energy for the final swing with an added twist of the body. Justin mastered that within four minutes of the start.

"Alright, 'Wrench master," Ratchet said. "Let's try something a little more hard. I'm gonna show you how to Hyper-Strike."

"Oh, boy!!" Justin exclaimed. "This should be fun! Is it?"

"Yeah, you just gotta master it before it gets _really_ fun, though. Okay, here's how it works."

Ratchet brought the hand that the wrench was grasped in and the other hand and drew them nearer to each other. Ratchet paused for a second to say, "Hold your hands together." The kit did so, and the wrench was now being held with both hands.

"Alright," Ratchet reassured Justin. "Now jump. Make it as high as you can." The kit leaped up into the air, and natural instincts told him to raise the wrench above his head. Ratchet was amazed. The kit fell to the ground perfectly on his feet. Ratchet almost wanted to go wide eyed, but he didn't want to overexcite the kit. He simply said, "Good JOB!!!!" And then he returned to the lesson.

"Okay," He said. "Now, do the same thing over again, only this time, when you get to the very top of yer jump, slam the wrench down in to the ground as you come back down. It's pretty devastating."

The kit did exactly as told. He leaped up into the air with the same grace as before. And, as instructed, when he reached the summit of his trajectory, he started to quickly force the wrench down along with the artificial gravity. But, there was one _slight_ problem. Justin had accidentally had his thumb pushing down on the kinetic tether release button. As he swung the head down, the centrifugal force blasted it right out of its socket in the shaft, and, like a rocket, it flew right toward the window of the station.

_Ah, crap._

The head broke right through the window, and it shattered into thousands of tiny shards of SpacGlass. Both Lombax's eyes went as wide as dinner platters on Thanksgiving. They heard Talwyn calling from the inside, from where they thought was upstairs.

"What was that?!" She said, almost panicky.

They both could just stand there, stammering in fear of Talwyn's rage. Or, at least what would be her rage when she saw the broken glass on the floor. They had to do some thinking that would have to be faster than the time it took for Ratchet's old Harbinger's missiles to turn into the charged particle beams and slice right back through all of the bad guys. They both came to an instant conclusion, however. They made a mad dash for the teleporter cannon as they heard Talwyn walking down the flight of stairs. They heard the sound of her footsteps alter slightly, indicating that she had reached the floor. Then there was a gasp, but Ratchet and Justin were just too far away to hear it.

They landed in a heap on an asteroid that Ratchet could not recall. He had never seen it in his whole life. He looked around to see exactly where they were. Check that, where HE was. Justin was not there. But where was there?! He was floating alone on a desolate rock one kilocubit from the Station. But he could still see it.

"JUSTIN!!!" He screamed into the cold artificial air. (This was around the station in every direction for exactly one zetacubit.) Then, he heard a very small voice from behind him.

"He is safe,"

He knew that voice. It sounded like a… robot. But it wasn't Nefarious. He turned to find two Vorselon troops standing behind him. Ratchet's teeth were clenched in absolute hate. He reached for his Manifestor, but his hand only met his thigh. He tried the other side. But there was nothing. One of the robots slowly held it out for him to see. How? He took a closer look. He saw that there was a small bomb strapped to it, counting down from ten. Ratchet could only gape as the troop slowly let it fall off of the asteroid. Ratchet leaped onto his stomach next to the edge and reached for it. Too late. It had already fallen too far. He slowly got up and watched it detonate. Tears began to well up in his eyes. He worked so hard for so long to get those weapons. No. TOO hard for TOO long. Now he had nothing. His wrench was even gone. Then he heard a noise. It sounded like the noise the teleporter cannon makes. He whipped around to find Talwyn falling out of a warp that was five feet above ground. She crashed down, but only to get up quickly and dust herself off. She looked to her side to see the troops. She gasped and looked at Ratchet.

"Do something!" She yelled as the troops restrained her by the arms.

"What do you propose that I do?" He yelled back. My Manifestor is gone!"

That was all he got to say before the world went absolutely black. He crashed to the dirt with a loud _thud._ Then he heard Talwyn calling his name…


	14. Taken Captive

Taken Captive

Ratchet slowly awoke. It was dark, and he was flying in a ship that was being driven by a Cazar who looked as if he had just returned from World War Two's Fallujah. His face was covered with scars that were slightly turning from blood-red to pus-yellow. He wore a small, evil grin to add to how much of a bad guy he already looked like. He also saw that Talwyn was sitting next to him. He couldn't tell but it looked almost as if she was crying. Nah, she wasn't. She never does. Right?

"Ah…" The Cazar said softly in a deep voice. "It seems that our prisoner has awoken. Of course, we don't intent to kill you. Well, not yet. We aren't…" There was a light pause as the Cazar put the ship on auto-pilot and turned to meet Ratchet's eyes. "…instructed to. You see what I mean of course." Ratchet's mind raced with questions that he desperately needed answers to. Where was he? Where was he going? And who was this weird person who was taking him there? "We haven't been properly introduced," The pilot continued, still on auto-pilot. "Just call me Scar." _Figures. _"I am taking you to your worst nightmare, Ratchet." Well, that answers two of my questions. Well, one and a half. He noticed that Talwyn still hadn't spoken a word. She wasn't crying any more. She was merely staring glumly into the floor as if she could find happiness if she looked deep enough into the pads. Ratchet pitied her gravely. It wasn't at all her fault that she was taken captive along with him. Still, he could not guess who as behind it all.

It took hours of nonstop flight to get to where they were going. But it was easy to tell where it was. As they approached the deathly-black planet, the ship's voice said: 'Now approaching Yaetalis.' Ratchet's head bolted up. That was a dying planet. It had been evacuated years ago. Something about how there was a poisonous gas released from a mill, the contents of which, no one knew. But, something he did know was that the earliest forms of life on that planet, being the religious Fongoids, had adopted Legalist laws. This meant that they set strict laws and would harshly and even gravely punish anyone who dared disobey them. Often meaning torture. There were probably torture tools still there…

Ratchet ever so strenuously tried and tried and tried some more to loosen the ropes of which he was bound to. He grunted and fought as Talwyn just sat there helplessly. He wondered how they would kill them. When they landed, The Cazar got out. He walked around the ship. Then, he opened the back hatch, drew a large knife, and said, "Welcome to h---, Lombax," and with that, he sliced the rope binding Ratchet, as well as severely gashing his hands. The torture had begun. He could tell just by the cries of pain and terror escape his mouth.

The Cazar carried him, accompanied by a few more, one of which carried Talwyn, who had finally realized what was going on, and she started to whimper. They entered a large building that was so low it looked like it only had a basement. As they walked inside, he found that that was true. There was just a dark, weakly lit hallway, with eerie rooms that were pitch black, but you could still see razor sharp tools, and the outlines of restrainer chairs. At the end, there was a spiraling staircase. He guessed it would take them down to the death chasm unknown. He was so weak, that the mere spiraling down this staircase made him nauseous. They went through a door when they finally reached the floor that really looked like it could have come out of a submarine. They entered a room that was partially lit by two nearly-burnt out lights. They dropped him to the floor, and one of the minions that wasn't carrying something brought out a titanium chair, the kind that are supposed to be uncomfortable. He took out a kind of epoxy, and glued it to the floor. Ratchet could pretty easily guess why. After that, the Cazar who had flown them to this backwater planet kicked him, knocking him into a position where he was on his back, and ripped his shirt of armor off. The same followed with every bit of clothing that he had. This was by far the most demeaning thing that had every happened to him in his life. After they did this, they sat him in the chair. Ratchet could not fight, he could not even move, he was so weak. But he could see perfectly now. And speak. He figured this out after bellowing out all of the seven swear words you should never use in one sentence as an insult. That only made the pilot kick him swiftly in the face. They all left with Talwyn in their arms, as she screamed and pleaded helplessly. "NO! STOP! YOU CAN'T DO THIS YOU…" That was all Ratchet had heard after the doors shut. He let out a cold, broken breath of dead fear. Then, he heard a voice behind him.

"It's time to meet your end, my dear Lombax," It said in a low voice, almost as if it was broken. It was very deep, and familiar, like he'd killed it. Wait…

He turned to see what he wouldn't have expected to see in the next million years. There was Lord Vorselon.


	15. Methods of Torture

Methods of Torture

There he stood, in a suit that looked much more impenetrable than the one that he had used to attempt to kill Ratchet in during the last three tries. It gleamed in the dark like razor-sharp chrome. The tank on his head was protected by solid carbonium. There wasn't a chance that anything could get through it.

"Well, Lombax," He said, in the usual deep and broken voice. "You have managed to get onto my 'List of Pitiful Good Guys Who Actually Think They Can Defeat Me' list."

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" Ratchet screamed.

"You don't get it do you?! The only thing that can kill me is burning me in a fire that is 5000 degrees or more. You won't be able to get a fire to that heat in a million years of burning. Not even Quantos' three suns' heat all added up would be that heat. Ha HA! This will be pleasant."

Ratchet saw him reach into a front pouch and draw out a long syringe. It had a needle on the end that Ratchet guessed was four inches long. Vorselon walked forward, stuck the needle into Ratchet's chest, (Ratchet winced in pain as if he had been shot by his own RYNO." And pushed in the contents. Then, he returned the needle back to his pocket, and then came up with a remote. There was a large red button in the center of it.

"There is now a large amount of electrified liquid Uralian Talcstone rushing through your veins. I am going to ask you a question. And I expect to be answered IMMEDIATELY. If not, or you disobey, I will push the button." He paused to wave the remote with his wrist. "And you will receive a deadly shock. The more you disobey, I will turn the dial higher, and the deadly shock will get far worse. Is that something we can do? Hm?"

"No promises."

"It seems you're reluctant. Before we begin your shock therapy, I will make you an offer." He snapped his fingers. A Cazar that he hadn't seen before walked into the torture chamber, and set a brand new manifestor on a table ten feet away. Ratchet stared, his mouth almost open. Vorselon continued. "If you agree, and tell me, we will give you a brand new manifestor. Everything inside is exactly as the previous one was before we… took it. In addition to this, you will receive antibiotics for your pain and suffering…" _Uh oh. Not good._ "…food, water, new clothes, we'll even pay you 1,000,000 bolts. All you have to do is answer me."

"I'm all ears." With that, Vorselon put his thumb over the button.

"Good. Now, please tell me: What planet are the Lombaxes living on?" Ratchet's eyes went wide. He planned to kill his race. This was bad. So very bad. No, he wouldn't fight. He'd die for the survival of his kind. He braced himself for the shock he'd receive, and said, "You might as well push the button." After this, he smiled cockily. Vorselon gritted his teeth, and the smile faded. Vorselon brought his thumb down atop the red button.

What happened next, Ratchet will not talk about at all. An absolutely agonizing electrocuting shock purged his body in all parts. What he wouldn't give to be a rubber balloon right now?

When it all ended, and Ratchet finally stopped screaming, he looked down at the ground. It seemed miles below him off of a cliff that he was about to cast himself off of.

"I hope that now, you realize what I am talking about here," Vorselon said after releasing the button. "And, it takes a lot of pain to equal too much pain that a person can possibly enjoy." He pushed the button again. At the same level though, as he had not asked a question. But, Ratchet still screamed. When he released it again, he walked up and smacked Ratchet on the side of the face. "Now," He continued. "I will ask you again. And, Miss Talwyn will give me the planet name, so all I need from you is the coordinates."

Ratchet merely gave a laugh as if he thought that Vorselon wasn't serious. Then, he looked him in the eye and said, "They're all dead. I went to that planet myself,* and found nothing more than a planet covered in slag. You'll waste your time killing me, and then waste your time trying to find them."

*Read Paul G's first story for the full scoop!

All Vorselon did was turn up the dial halfway, and let fly another round of the shocks. Ratchet gritted his teeth. He kicked and thrashed. But the shocks went straight through his body like a demon cobra slithering through his veins and biting his insides every inch of the way. Ratchet just wanted to curl up and die. Wait a second… curl up and die? That's IT!! He waited for him to take his thumb off the button, screaming for effect, until he finally did. When he did, the shock stopped instantly. Ratchet drooped his head and ears and breathed very heavily. He was on his last leg of life. He knew this, but he had to play it cool to throw Vorselon off track for a second.

"Now," Vorselon said, breathing in between every phrase. "Tell me where the Lombax's planet is, or I will shock you at the highest possible level, and you will die in ten seconds.

"You know, everyone is going to know that you stripped me naked, and sat me on this chair, and shocked me repeatedly," Ratchet said, having a plan formed. "Everyone will know that you died torturing the universe's savior."

"Died?" Vorselon said, surprised. "Me? No. YOU will die tonight. And no one will ever know what is happening."

"You'd be surprised."

"You think people will find out? Who's to tell them?"

"YES! I DO think people will find out, and you're clients, the Cazars that brought me here will tell. Because you can slauther me until I'm reduced to just a pile of blood and guts, but I'll never give you the coordinates, and since the Cazars are paying you to get them to the Lombaxes, and kill them for being 'so perfect,' that means that they are going to find you through the thickest of the space clouds, and tear your limbs apart from your body while you're still alive. Because if you kill me, there will no way to hide from them. Because you'll never give them what they want, because you won't have the one creature in the universe who knows where they actually are who will never tell you anyway."

This only angered Lord Vorselon further than he had been angered before in his life. He was right, and wrong. He had to point that out.

"But you are WRONG!!! YOU PITIFUL CREATURE!!!!! Even after I kill you beyond your personal belief, along with your mate upstairs, my clients will not kill me, but worship me. Because I will have killed the one thing that creates the race's will to live. You. And they will turn in like a bear before hibernation. My clients will pay me millions. Too bad you won't be there." With that, he extended to his full height, towering over Ratchet, and turned the dial on the button so hard it almost shattered altogether, and pressed it.

_I'm SO hosed._

It was a peaceful morning on the planet that the Lombaxes had dubbed 'New Fastoon.' The creatures walked in the sun, in the large park across the countryside, and the little kits played games in the grass, from pretending to be an Agorian to Ratchet. Everyone was happy, but probably the busiest place of all was the Museum of Lombax History. Everyone poured in to see the new exhibits. They were in a room labeled 'Unusual Exhibits.' There were categories such as "Fastest Flown,' 'Longest Ran for Mayor,' and, wait, did that just change? I think the 'Worst Tortured' holo-gram just changed from Cognito Slim to Ratchet. Just Ratchet. Everyone gathered around it to see. A security officer touched his earphone to activate it, and said, "Mr. Mayor, we have a situation in the Museum."

Mayor Riggard got to the museum in his special limousine in about five minutes. When he stepped out, he was accompanied by two armed guards, ensuring that no one assassinated him along the way to the exhibit. Cameras flashed faster than any finger could possibly snap them off. He looked over to the Museum manager as he started to walk with him. "Talk to me."

"It was just a usual day," The manager began. "When, the 'Worst Tortured' exhibit turned from Cognito Slim, to…"

He was cut off by the Mayor's pushing open the exhibit doors. When he saw what Slim had been replaced by, he removed his glasses to ensure that he was seeing this right. When the vision cleared slightly, he gasped to find that he was seeing right. A few Lombaxes from the other exhibits came to see what the commotion was. They gasped too. I fact, everyone who hadn't gasped already did. The holo-gram statue of the person who was the Worst Tortured changed to Ratchet. It showed him bound and tied in a chair, and he was staring straight up with gritted teeth and tightly shut eyes. There were a few electro bolts that were visible on the outside of his fur. They were frozen in time, but clearly seeable. Ratchet was being tortured. Badly. They had to save him. Like right then.

"Alright," The Mayor said, raising his hand. "I want the five most elite of the Army Lombaxes to accompany me to…" He paused and looked to see where his location was. "…Yaetalis. We're gonna save a dying friend." Everyone cheered.

They all raced outside just as the elite Task Strike Force of Lombaxes arrived. They were all armed with Plasma Strikers for long range missions, Combustors for light ops, and Judicators for Special ops heavy missions. They all piled into the limousine, which was not only safe for the Mayor, but the fastest thing from that planet.

"Light Speed. If we don't get there quick, Vorselon will finally find us."

The shocks went through Ratchet. He was going to die. That was all that was on his mind. He would die. There was no hope. No one was coming to save him. He screamed into the night that was shielded of from him five feet above by a thing called a ceiling. He was in more pain than he could possibly imagine he'd ever be in. The shock went through his veins so far that it penetrated right through them. Not only that, but the shocks also traveled far enough to get to his heart and lungs, he had no hands at his disposal to put on his chest in a feeble attempt to make it stop. Vorselon held it on for a full minute or two. When he finally released it as abruptly as possible, everything, including his fur drooped toward the floor. He felt as if he was being sucked into the center of the earth by gravitational pull.

"This all can end," said Vorselon. "My deal is still in effect. By telling me where the Lombaxes are, you can become rich. But, now, it is too late. You will die. And I will watch you die slowly as the shocks overcome your strength, and you will die. He pulled up a chair. "I will sit here, and watch you perish. Too bad too. For the race of Lombaxes, I mean. A-hm-hm."

Ratchet waited for death. It was only a matter of minutes… any time now… any moment now… any… you know what? He just wasn't dying. He didn't know why or how, but he wasn't dying. And Vorselon appeared to notice this. He got up out of his stool, tossed it aside; (it made a heavily audible wooden clangor that gave Ratchet a headache) stormed over to the Cazar standing next to the table, and said, "I thought you said it would kill him. YOU SAID IT WOULD KILL HIM IN THREE TRIES!" The Cazar freaked out. "I… I… know, Lord, um… it should've worked, I mean I designed it. I don't believe it!"

Vorselon pulled out his blaster and aimed it at the Cazar's face. "I don't believe your incapability." Then, to Ratchet's disbelief, he squeezed off a round. The Cazar fell to the ground like a crumpled rag doll. Vorselon threw the blaster aside, and grabbed something off of the table. It was a whip. No, it… yes, it was a whip. It was encrusted on the outside with Raritanium and a sharpened diamond at the very end of the tip. He knew what that was for. The diamond would slash through the skin and the Raritanium would get inside his bloodstream, which could be poisonous. He lightly swung the tip back and forth, back and forth, back and… he swung it, and it cracked across his chest. He didn't scream. Instead, he just mumbled. _MmmMMMmm!_

"Now," Vorselon said again, smacking him across the face harder than ever. "I have given you plenty of chances to redeem yourself. Now it's your turn to shape up, or be shipped out. I can use this whip to sting you in the worst possible places." Ratchet's eyes got wide. "And, if used properly, I can get enough Raritanium in your blood to AT LEAST kill you. Now, you know the question; now give me the correct answer."

Ratchet just scowled. He wouldn't tell him for the sake of the Lombaxes. He would die for them all. He had to be brave. "No," He said.

"What?" Vorselon said. "WHAT?!"

"No." Ratchet said. "I don't want to tell. Yes, I know where they are. But I won't tell for the sake of the Lombaxes. When I was four years old, and could maturely talk, I took a five word oath for the race. 'My life for the Lombaxes.' And I stand for it. I've stood for it my whole life. And that isn't about to change now."

Vorselon whipped him straight across his face. Ratchet couldn't take it. He screamed until he was out of air.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! AH! AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He passed out. What more could he do? But, it would not last. His body regained consciousness after hearing the loud roars of starship fusion engines. The kind they use on limos. That was odd. Why was a limo here? After the engines died down, Vorselon, who was not expecting reinforcements, let out a brief, "What?" There was the sound of some pistols firing, the screams of dying Cazars, and the _thump_ of their bodies slamming to the ground. Then he heard voices. They were familiar somehow.

"Door's locked, sir," one says, panting.

"Well, shoot it," another says, this tone of voice being deeper.

"Yes, Colonel Romulus." There was the sound of a Judicator round slamming and exploding into the door, and it fell to the ground forwardly. A Lombax armed with the Judicator that had blown the door to the ground stepped into the room, with the three barrels where the now detonated missiles used to stay. A few more followed. Some armed with combustors, some with Mag-Net Cannons, and some with Plasma Strikers. They were all aiming them at Vorselon. He pretended to surrender. But Ratchet saw the pure lies in his eyes. It was just gross. The Lombaxes didn't care, the one with the large scar on his temple, who Ratchet guessed was the Colonel, said, "It is too late for your 'sorries,' Flint. OPEN FIRE!!!"

The bullets nearly were vaporized as they touched the suit of armor. They couldn't kill him. But they wouldn't accept it. The Colonel gave one more order, "OPEN FIRE ON THE TANK THAT HE CALLS HIS HEAD!!!" This time, they weren't vaporized, but nearly ricocheted entirely across the room. Vorselon laughed.

"Foolish creatures," he said. "This Lombax is a dead one. And there's nothing you can DO ABOUT IT!!!" He was screaming now. He stormed over to the table on which the Manifestor took its place. He scrolled through the inventory, until he pulled out Ratchet's duplicate Incinerator. Ratchet's brain hatched an idea.

Vorselon was now aiming the flamethrower at Ratchet's body. He gave a chuckle, and then said, with an evil grin, "I think that I'll BURN what you Lombaxes see of most value." Ratchet knew what that meant. That was crossing the line and barbaric. Burning a Lombax's fur was burning a Lombax's will to live, or at least the will to show himself in public ever again. The finger was on the trigger now. Ratchet did something that would be remembered throughout Lombax history. Right as Vorselon pulled the trigger, and the flames started to shoot through the barrel, he kicked the front tip of the gun, sending it flying toward Vorselon's face. The Incinerator was still in the hands of Vorselon, and the heat malfunctioned the suit. He could not take his finger off of the trigger any more. He was paralyzed from the feet up. The flames did not penetrate the carbonium tank posing as his head, but it was going a perfect job of heating the temperature of the water inside to well above five thousand degrees. The water inside boiled like mad, and Vorselon screamed as his head burned to ashes, and those ashes turned to dust, and kept going in a cycle until there was oblivion. When it reached this state, the steam and pressure became too much for the inside of the tank. It exploded, and the body fell limp to the ground. That was it. Game over. Ratchet felt happy, but it was not to last. For a strong feeling of drowsiness came over him as if he was dying, he gasped for breath, and then, he remembered, Raritanium poisoning.


	16. Difibrillation

Defibrillation

The world was on his shoulders. At least that was what it felt like to Ratchet. Once Vorselon had died, the holo-chains that he had been bound with released somehow, and he dropped to the cold, hard, and unforgiving floor beneath him. He felt drowsier than his own eyelids as they were about to give out on him. He was suffering Raritanium poisoning. And that was just too awful for his comrades to allow to happen.

"Oh, god!" one shouted, as he shook himself to the bone. "Raritanium poisoning! He's gonna die!"

Everyone looked to the Lombax and then to Ratchet. He lay there on the ground, whimpering and trying to control his breathing. But, as always before, he wouldn't go down without trying a move that would probably kill him anyway.

"N-no…" He said, trying to breath in between words. "It's… not… over,… not while… I'm… breathing." All of the Lombaxes puzzled about how he could stay alive, and Ratchet continued, his voice getting more broken by the second. "The-there… i-is a Manif-festor… on… th-that table… over there." He feebly stuck out his index finger at that table, and the mayor instantly ran to it. He pulled up the inventory, and Ratchet spoke again. "There… is a… defribulator… in there. Get… it out."

All of the Lombaxes knew what that meant. It meant that the raritanium had seeped into his bloodstream. What the raritanium does is get into the bloodstream, and infects the whole system, making it impossible for the heart to take in the blood. And without the blood to power the heart… it would stop.

And, apparently, the Lombax race was not about to let that happen to their hero.

The mayor sprinted in a mad dash to the table, knowing that there was little time for Ratchet to live. While this was happening, another mercenary Lombax was scanning Ratchet's body for any signs of disease. The readings were so off the hook that the Mayor could hear it from ten yards away, and counting. When the leader got to the table, he blurted out words that were almost inaudible. "D'ya know what it is yet?"

The merc looked at the readings again, and had no choice but to give a small head rattle and a faint, "No. Still scanning." There was a slow trill as the scanner did what it was built to do. Finally, there was a different beep…

"Digicartia," He said.

The mayor about freaked out. What could be done? It was what the Lombaxes had named a 'forever' virus. If not treated instantly, it would end Ratchet's life almost immediately.

"S***," Was the mayor's response.

"Sir!"

"Just shut up! Give me the defibrillator in his Manifestor!"

That is just what happened. It was in the Mayor's possession as quick as a flash of lightning on Xergazhiagio. He put the leads on Ratchet's chest.

_What's happening down there? _That was all that was on Talwyn's mind._ Whatever it is, I hope it's the authorities. Hmm, maybe I can break free. I mean, it's just rope, right? Right?_

Wrong. It proves to be nearly impossible, especially the knot part. It was tied too tight. Then she remembered. Christmas…

"What are you doing?" said the merc. "He's not dead!"

"I know!" the mayor screamed back. "But he only has a few minutes before he passes out. If he does, his heart will stop. He's going to inevitably pass out, but if I can keep his heart going, he'll live. Alfonso, watch his heart rate!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Hang on Ratchet… hang on."

Talwyn got free.

There was no other logical explanation for it, she was just free. Not even she knew how. But, that didn't matter.

She ran to the door, madly trying to unlock it, but it was no use. It wouldn't move. _What now?_

Without stopping to think at all, she pulled out her blaster, and tried to shoot it open. There was a sizzle, a clanging sound, and she was out. _This is just like _Saw.

_ZZZAAAP!_

That is what everyone heard. Ratchet was up like a refreshed dog.

"Where's Talwyn?" he asked.

_PONK! PONK! PONK!_

_ PONK! PONK! PONK! _There were three dents in the door. Just… like… I don't even know, it was there, okay? The door fell out, and Talwyn stood there, blaster at her side.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Uhh… no…" was everyone's response.

Her eyes suddenly went wide. It was like a black hole, a worm warp hole, it was like IRIS had been painted black, it was like the end of the world, at least, that's what it looked like at that point, the eyes were just so huge. Ratchet coped with this, as he had freaked out before at it was just minor, and whatever this matter was, it was probably just as minor. Then, all of the man started to look at him to. _What is going on?_ It was all too weird. Strange. Why would they all look at him? It kind of creeped him out.

"Whaaaat?" he said.

A little cackle escaped Talwyn's throat, which was even weirder. What was the matter with everyone? He felt dumb. Then, they all started chuckling. Well, more like snickering, but it progressed into chuckling, then soon rolling on the ground and laughing their pants off. _ What's the deal here? It's not like I'm naked in public!_

He looked down.

_Well… at least not in public…_


End file.
